made the common salute of the country, by taking off their
hats. Where would one of the lower classes in Europe
have shown such feeling politeness to a poor and miserable
object of a degraded race?
At night we slept at a cottage. Our manner of travelling
was delightfully independent. In the inhabited parts
we bought a little firewood, hired pasture for the animals,
and bivouacked in the corner of the same field with them.
Carrying an iron pot, we cooked and ate our supper under
the cloudless sky, and knew no trouble. My companions
were Mariano Gonzales, who had formerly accompanied me,
and an “ arriero,” with his ten mules and a “ madrina.”
The madrina (or godmother) is a most important personage.
She is an old steady mare, with a little bell round her
n e ck ; and wheresoever she goes, the mules, like good children,
follow her. If several large troops are turned into one
field to graze, in the morning the muleteer has only to lead
the madrinas a little apart, and tinkle their bells ; and, although
there may be two or three hundred mules together,
each immediately knows its own bell, and separates itself
from the rest. The affection of these animals for their
madrinas saves infinite trouble. It is nearly impossible to
lose an old mule; for if detained for several hours by force,
she will, by the power of smell, like a dog, track out her
companions, or ratlier the madrina; for, according to the
muleteer, she is the chief object of affection. The feeling,
however, is not of an individual nature; for I believe I am
right in saying, that any animal with a bell will serve as
madrina. In a troop each animal carries, on a level road, a
caro-o weighing 416 pounds (more than twenty-nine stone);
but in a mountainous country a hundred pounds less.* Yet
with what delicate slim limbs, without any proportional bulk
of muscle, these animals support so great a burden! The
• T h ro u g h o u t C h ile , e x c e p t b e tw e e n S a n tia g o a n d V a lp a ra iso , e v e ry
th in g is c o n v e y ed o n m u le s . T h is is a n e x p e n s iv e m e th o d o f tra n s p o rt,
b u t u n a v o id a b le w ith o u t good ro ad s a n d im p ro v ed waggons. I n a tro o p
o f m u le s, th e r e is g e n e ra lly a m u le te e r to ea ch s ix an im a ls .
mule always appears to me a most surprising animal. That
a hylirid should possess more reason, memory, obstinacy,
social affection, and powers of muscular endurance, than
either of its parents, seems to indicate that art has here out-
mastered nature. Of our ten animals, six were intended
for riding and four for carrying cargoes, each taking turn
about. We carried a good deal of food, in case we should
be snowed up, as the season was rather late for passing the
Portillo.
M a r c h 1 9 t i i .— We rode during this day to the last, and
therefore most elevated house in the valley. The number of
inhabitants became scanty; but wherever water could be
brought on tlie land, it was very fertile. All the valleys in
the Cordillera agree in the same kind of structure. An
irregularly-stratified mass of well-rounded shingle, together
with a little mud and sand, fills up the bottom to the depth
of some hundred feet. This deposit follows the course of
the valley, sloping upwards witli a most gradual and gentle
inclination. The rivers have removed a large part in the
centre; thus leaving a terrace of equal height, but varying
width, on each side. This narrow space between the cliffs
bordering the bed of the river, and the foot of the mountains,
is the only part fit for cultivation, and on it likewise
the road is carried.
The rivers, such as the Maypo, which flow in these
valleys, should rather be called mountain torrents. Their
inclination is very great, and their water the colour of mud.
The roar which the Maypo made, as it rushed over the great
rounded fragments, was like that of the sea. Amidst the
din of rushing waters, the noise from the stones, as they
rattled one over another, was most distinctly audible even
at a distance. This rattling noise, night and day, may be
heard along the whole course of the torrent. The sound
spoke eloquently to the geologist: the thousands and thousands
of stones, which, striking against each other, make
the one dull uniform sound, are all hurrying in one direction.
It is like thinking of time, where the minute that
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