We spent the day on the summit, and I never enjoyed one more
thoroughly. Chile, bounded by the Andes and the Pacific, was seen
as in a map. The pleasure from the scenery, in itself beautiful,
was heightened by the many reflections which arose from the mere
view of the Campana range with its lesser parallel ones, and of the
broad valley of Quillota directly intersecting them. Who can avoid
wondering at the force which has upheaved these mountains, and even
more so at the countless ages which it must have required to have
broken through, removed, and levelled whole masses of them? It is
well in this case to call to mind the vast shingle and sedimentary
beds of Patagonia, which, if heaped on the Cordillera, would
increase its height by so many thousand feet. When in that country,
I wondered how any mountain-chain could have supplied such masses,
and not have been utterly obliterated. We must not now reverse the
wonder, and doubt whether all-powerful time can grind down
mountains--even the gigantic Cordillera--into gravel and mud.
The appearance of the Andes was different from that which I had
expected. The lower line of the snow was of course horizontal, and
to this line the even summits of the range seemed quite parallel.
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