Ninety-seven kinds of trees are found in the Chilian forests, of which thirteen only shed their leaves; so that an everlasting verdure presents itself; of those resembling the European, the cypress, pine, oak, laurel and cedar, are varieties of the same kinds. The other most curious ones are the theige or Chili willow, which yields a great quantity of manna; the floripondio, whose flowers diffuse so great a fragrance that one is sufficient to perfume a garden; the Chilian orange, whose wood is esteemed by turners, on account of its fine yellow colour; the boighe, or white cinnamon, resembling the cinnamon of Ceylon, and esteemed a sacred tree by the Araucanians, who always present a branch of it to the embassadors, on concluding a peace. The luma, a myrtle which grows to the height of forty feet, and whose trunk affords the best wood for the coachmakers of Peru; the quillia, from whose bark a soap is manufactured; the palma Chilensis, or Chilian cocoa nut, whose fruit, though resembling that of the tropic nut, is not larger than an apple; the gevuin, which is a sort of walnut tree, and the pihuen, a sort of fir or pine, which is the most beautiful tree in Chili. Its trunk is generally eighty feet in height, and eight in girth; the limbs which branch from it begin at half its height, and leave it alternately by fours, decreasing in length as they approach the top. The fruit, like that of the pine, is very large, and has two kernels, which in taste nearly resembles the chestnut; a gum, used as frankincense, exudes from the bark; and its timber is highly useful.
Chili is as singular in its landscape as any, and perhaps more so than most other parts of America, as on the east it is shut out from La Plata by the Andes, which, rising to an enormous height, has its surface covered with pinnacles, which are in general volcanic. This Cordillera scarcely ever depresses itself in its course through the country, till it approaches Peru; and it seems probable that it attains a greater elevation in this kingdom than in Quito; no actual measurement has however been made of its highest summits, though they are well known by name. The Chilian Andes are about 120 miles in breadth, taking a direction from the Archipelago of Chonos to the frontiers of Tucuman, and consisting of an uninterrupted chain of ridges, constantly losing themselves in the snowy regions of the air; their sides are interspersed with fruitful valleys and dreadful precipices, and give birth to rivers, exhibiting the most beautiful and the most terrific features of nature.
The roads leading from Chili to Tucuman and Cuyo are not more than eight or nine in number, of which that leading from Aconcagua to Cuyo is the best. It is bordered on one side by the deep beds of the Chilé and the Mendoza rivers; on the other by lofty and impracticable precipices; and is so narrow that in many places the rider is obliged to descend from his mule and proceed on foot; nor does a year ever pass without some of those animals being precipitated into the thundering streams below.
The precipices which accompany this route occasionally open and display beautiful and fertile plains. In these places are seen the tambos of the Incas, only one of which has been destroyed. This road requires eight days to pass in good weather, but in winter it is totally impracticable. That portion of the Andes between the 24° and 33° south latitude is wholly desert, and the remainder, as far as the 45°, is inhabited by the Chiquillanes, Pehuenches, Puelches, and Huilliches, tribes who are in amity with the Araucanians.
The Chilian Andes form three parallel ridges, the centre being the most elevated, and flanked by the others at 20 or 30 miles distance, and they are connected by transversal branches.
The highest mountains of this chain are the Manflos, in 28° 45' south latitude, the Tupungato, in 33° 24', the Descabezado, in 35°, the Blanquillo, in 35° 4', the Longavi, in 35° 30', the Chillan, in 36°, and the immense Corcobado, in 43°; and it is said that all of these are more than 20,000 feet above the level of the sea, the lowest part of the chain being in the province of Copiapo.
This Cordillera has no fewer than fourteen volcanoes, in a constant state of eruption, and a much greater number discharging only smoke. Fortunately for the inhabitants, these are, with the exception of two, all situated on the very ridge of the Andes, and thus cover only a small space in their immediate vicinity with the devastating effects of the heated substances which are thrown from them. The greatest eruption ever known in this country was on the 3d of December 1760, when the volcano Peteroa burst forth by a new crater, and rent asunder a mountain in its vicinity.
It formed a lake by stopping up the passage of a considerable river, and was heard throughout the whole country.
The two volcanoes which are not on the ridge of the Andes, are that at the mouth of the river Rapel, which is inconsiderable, and ejects only vapour; and that of Villarica, near a lake of the same name in Arauco.