Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.3)

Feb. 1835. valdivia. 363 pertinaciously tell me the Indian name for every little point, rivulet, and creek. In the same manner as in Tierra del Fuego, the Indian language appears singularly well adapted for attaching liames to the most trivial divisions of the land. I believe every one was glad to say farewell to Chiloe. Yet if we could forget the gloom and ceaseless rain of winter, Chiloe might pass for a charming island. There is, also, something very attractive in the simphcity and humble po- liteness of all the poor inhabitants. We steered along shore to the northward, but owing to thick weather, did not reach Valdivia till the night of the eighth. The external features of the whole line of country were the same with the central parts of Chiloe. The forest was nowhere cleared away. On the sea-coast bold rocky points projected, but further inland the older formations were covered up by plains, belonging to geological periods of no great antiquity. The next morning, after anchoring in the fine harbour of Valdivia, 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 which had evidently planted themselves. 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, 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