Chile must formerly have resembled the latter country in the configuration of its land and water.

The resemblance was occasionally shown strikingly when a level fog-bank covered, as with a mantle, all the lower parts of the country: the white vapour curling into the ravines, beautifully represented little coves and bays; and here and there a solitary hillock peeping up showed that it had formerly stood there as an islet.

The contrast of these flat valleys and basins with the irregular mountains gave the scenery a character which to me was new and very interesting.
From the natural slope to seaward of these plains, they are very easily irrigated, and in consequence singularly fertile.

Without this process the land would produce scarcely anything, for during the whole summer the sky is cloudless.

The mountains and hills are dotted over with bushes and low trees, and excepting these the vegetation is very scanty.