safety. We arrived here the day before yesterday; the views of the distant
mountains are most sublime and the climate delightful; after our long
cruise in the damp gloomy climates of the south, to breathe a clear dry air
and feel honest warm sunshine, and eat good fresh roast beef must be the
summum bonum of human life. I do not like the look of the rocks half so
much as the beef, there is too much of those rather insipid ingredients,
mica, quartz and feldspar. Our plans are at present undecided; there is a
good deal of work to the south of Valparaiso and to the north an indefinite
quantity. I look forward to every part with interest. I have sent you in
this letter a sad dose of egotism, but recollect I look up to you as my
father in Natural History, and a son may talk about himself to his father.
In your paternal capacity as proproctor what a great deal of trouble you
appear to have had. How turbulent Cambridge is become. Before this time
it will have regained its tranquillity. I have a most schoolboy-like wish
to be there, enjoying my holidays. It is a most comfortable reflection to
me, that a ship being made of wood and iron, cannot last for ever, and
therefore this voyage must have an end.

October 28th. This letter has been lying in my portfolio ever since July;
I did not send it away because I did not think it worth the postage; it
shall now go with a box of specimens. Shortly after arriving here I set
out on a geological excursion, and had a very pleasant ramble about the
base of the Andes. The whole country appears composed of breccias (and I
imagine slates) which universally have been modified and oftentimes
completely altered by the action of fire. The varieties of porphyry thus
produced are endless, but nowhere have I yet met with rocks which have
flowed in a stream; dykes of greenstone are very numerous. Modern volcanic
action is entirely shut up in the very central parts (which cannot now be
reached on account of the snow) of the Cordilleras. In the south of the R.
Maypu I examined the Tertiary plains, already partially described by M.