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

364 VALDiviA. Feb. 1835. deep in the ground : the operation is performed in the ear- liest part of the spring. During the succeeding summer, the stump throws out very 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. The ensuing summer, the first year shoots throw out others, and by the third season the stump is changed (as I have myself seen) into a well-wooded tree, loaded with an abundance of fruit. I understand there is one kind of apple- tree in England, which can be treated in a similar manner but I believe the rapidity of growth, and at the same time production of fruit, is very inferior to that of the trees in Chiloe. An old man near Valdivia illustrated his motto, " Necessidad es la madre del invencion," by giving an ac- count of the several useful things he manufactured from his apples. After making cider, he extracted from the refuse a white and very finely-flaA'oured spirit : by another process he procured a sweet treacle, or, as he called it, honey. He like- wise showed us wine derived from the same fruit. The children and pigs seemed almost to live, during this season of the year, in the orchards. 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 diiierence in latitude, of 150 miles, has given another aspect to the forest, compared to that of Chiloe. This is owing to a slightly different pro- portion in the kinds of trees. The evergreens do not appear to be quite so numerous ; and the forest in consequence is coloured by a brighter and more lively green. In the same manner as in Chiloe, the lower parts are matted together by canes. Here also another kind of the same family (resembhng the bamboo of Brazil, and about twenty feet in height), grows in clusters, and ornaments the banks of some of the streams