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    94 Beauty .

    and the craft lies directly in the wake of the stranger . Three hours , and she is up with her , but she wears a flag which yields only disappointment , and the craft swiftly leaves her to leeward . Again the helm is changed , and the course is due westward ; the sun is at its meridian height , and a fresh man has mounted to the mast-head . ' Land ! ' is his cry ; and all eyes are strained

    forward . Is he right , or is it a fogbank ? Surely only rising clouds are to be seen . Mark how they change their aspect ! No land could look so lofty . Look again ; there is an opening over yon floculent mass , above which is a misty vapour slowly clearing away . The opening is growing wider , and in the centre of it there is a mountain peak . Look ! the mist has cleared away from the summit , and the giant mass is seen rearing its snowy head towards the heavens . Onward moves the craft , and the

    mountainous snowy ridge is seen trending away , north and south , with a broken and ragged outline , here and there rising into conical elevations , which seem to mock their base . Is that smoke which is curling round one of the peaks , or is the melting snow resolving into vapours ? I Cannot pronounce . Nearer and nearer we approach , and now the hitherto unbroken surface begins to vary . Ridges and vallies begin to appear in the faint blue mass . Ha !

    a secondary ridge , devoid of snow , appears to run parallel with the main chain . How barren , sharp , and defined it looks ; how jagged is its outline ! Look a little to the north ; see you yonder bell-formed mountain rising from the secondary ridge ? It is the Cam pan a de Quillota , far and near the sailor ' s landmark , and many wondrous stones are told of the wealth which the aborigines

    buried in its entrails , to hide it from the Spaniards . Witches and demons guard it ; and though at night a blue flame plays around the entrance to the cavern , by day all trace has disappeared - It is a beautiful mountain ! See how its summit rises clear , while a drapery of mist has shrouded its central region . Upward rises the mist , and now again the mountain is lost to view . But nearer we approach , and the third , or marine ridge of hills , is becoming \ isible . The loftier ridges are magnificent , but this is beautiful . Look ; into what shadowy forms it is broken ! Mark the glens , thickly clothed with woods of dark green foliage , and rising above them in beautiful relief , the light green grassy

    slopes , which , at their extreme height , melt into a red marly tint , as if to show the outline like a map . Look on the arms of the mountains , spreading outwards , and gradually lengthening into long rocky promontories , abutting in the glassy ocean , with

    the continuous reef showing its sharp points at intervals , as the slow roll of the approaching tide varies in its speed . Voluptuous is the soft motion of the vessel , as if in unison with the flute of the mariner on the bow , beneath which the faint ripple of the water dashes with a musical sound . Look now on the near cliffs . Those old granite crags ere moss-crowned above , and sea-weed

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1833, page 94, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2608/page/26/