We Steered Northward Along Shore, But Owing To Thick
Weather Did Not Reach Valdivia Till The Night Of The 8th.
The
next morning the boat proceeded to the town, which is distant
about ten miles.
We followed the course of the river,
occasionally passing a few hovels, and patches of ground
cleared out of the otherwise unbroken forest; and sometimes
meeting a canoe with an Indian family. The town is situated
on the low banks of the stream, and is so completely
buried in a wood of apple-trees that the streets are merely
paths in an orchard I have never seen any country, where
apple-trees appeared to thrive so well as in this damp part of
South America: on the borders of the roads there were
many young trees evidently self-grown. In Chiloe the inhabitants
possess a marvellously short method of making an
orchard. At the lower part of almost every branch, small,
conical, brown, wrinkled points project: these are always
ready to change into roots, as may sometimes be seen, where
any mud has been accidentally splashed against the tree. A
branch as thick as a man's thigh is chosen in the early spring,
and is cut off just beneath a group of these points, all the
smaller branches are lopped off, and it is then placed about
two feet deep in the ground. During the ensuing summer
the stump throws out long shoots, and sometimes even bears
fruit: I was shown one which had produced as many as
twenty-three apples, but this was thought very unusual. In
the third season the stump is changed (as I have myself
seen) into a well-wooded tree, loaded with fruit. An old
man near Valdivia illustrated his motto, "Necesidad es la
madre del invencion," by giving an account of the several
useful things he manufactured from his apples. After making
cider, and likewise wine, he extracted from the refuse a
white and finely flavoured spirit; by another process he
procured a sweet treacle, or, as he called it, honey. His
children and pigs seemed almost to live, during this season of
the year, in his orchard.
February 11th. - I set out with a guide on a short ride, in
which, however, I managed to see singularly little, either
of the geology of the country or of its inhabitants. There
is not much cleared land near Valdivia: after crossing a
river at the distance of a few miles, we entered the forest, and
then passed only one miserable hovel, before reaching our
sleeping-place for the night. The short difference in latitude,
of 150 miles, has given a new aspect to the forest compared
with that of Chiloe. This is owing to a slightly
different proportion in the kinds of trees. The evergreens
do not appear to be quite so numerous, and the forest in
consequence has a brighter tint. As in Chiloe, the lower
parts are matted together by canes: here also another kind
(resembling the bamboo of Brazil and about twenty feet in
height) grows in clusters, and ornaments the banks of some
of the streams in a very pretty manner.
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