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

368 vALDiviA. Feb. 1835. on the road, and next morning reached Valdivia, whence I proceeded on board. A few days afterwards I crossed the bay with a party of officers, and landed near the fort called Niebla. The build- ings were in a most ruinous state, and the gun-carriages quite rotten. Mr. Wickham remarked to the commanding officer, that with one discharge they would certainly all fall to pieces. The poor man, trying to put a good face upon it, gravely replied, " No, I am sure, sir, they would stand two ! " The Spaniards must have intended to have made this place impregnable. There is now lying in the middle of the courtyard a little mountain of mortar, which rivals in hardness the rock on which it is placed. It was brought from Chile, and cost seven thousand dollars. The revo- lution having broken out, prevented its being applied to any purpose, and now it remains a monument of the fallen greatness of Spain. I wanted to go to a house about a mile and a half distant but my guide said it was quite impossible to penetrate the wood in a straight line. He offered, however, to lead me, by following obscure cattle-tracks, the shortest way ; the walk, nevertheless, took no less than three hours ! This man is employed in hunting strayed cattle ; yet, well as he must know the woods, he was not long since lost for two whole days, and had nothing to eat. These facts convey a good idea of the impracticability of the forests of these countries. A question often occurred to me — How long does any vestige of a fallen tree remain ? This man showed me one which a party of fugitive royalists had cut down fourteen years ago ; and taking ,this as a criterion, I should think a bole a foot and a half in diameter would in thirty years present a mere ridge of mould. February 20th. — The day has been memorable in the annals of Valdivia, for the most severe earthquake expe- rienced by the oldest inhabitant. I happened to be on shore, and was lying down in the wood to rest myself. It came on suddenly, and lasted two minutes; but the time appeared