We reached, by the evening, a spring called the Agua del
Guanaco, which is situated at a great height. This must be an old
name, for it is very many years since a guanaco drank its waters.
During the ascent I noticed that nothing but bushes grew on the
northern slope, whilst on the southern slope there was a bamboo
about fifteen feet high. In a few places there were palms, and I
was surprised to see one at an elevation of at least 4500 feet.
These palms are, for their family, ugly trees. Their stem is very
large, and of a curious form, being thicker in the middle than at
the base or top. They are excessively numerous in some parts of
Chile, and valuable on account of a sort of treacle made from the
sap. On one estate near Petorca they tried to count them, but
failed, after having numbered several hundred thousand. Every year
in the early spring, in August, very many are cut down, and when
the trunk is lying on the ground, the crown of leaves is lopped
off. The sap then immediately begins to flow from the upper end,
and continues so doing for some months: it is, however, necessary
that a thin slice should be shaved off from that end every morning,
so as to expose a fresh surface.
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