Opposite Chiloé, on the mainland, is the Palena River, the largest river in Chile. The excessive rains and melting snows from the lofty peaks, which are plainly visible when the mists have cleared away, keep the banks filled with water. Every cloud that sweeps in from the Pacific comes down in rain as soon as it encounters the mountains. The slopes are dotted with wood clear up to the snow-line. The woods here, as well as elsewhere, are seemingly impenetrable. There are many flowering trees which add their beauty to the scene. A tall cane from which the Indians used to make spears grows in great confusion almost everywhere. It grows in great stools like giant bunches of rushes. The genii of vegetation takes possession of the riches of the ground. The beautiful green of the Chilean pine predominates. The mouth of the river is a stretch of delta. Of course it cannot compare with the streams on the Atlantic coast, but it is a striking river. Dancing mountain streams join it here and there—sometimes with a leap from the hills, thus forming numerous cascades. These white streaks of the cascades are visible on the mountain slopes in many places. The mists keep shifting and shimmering around the various peaks,—now revealing and again hiding the silent glens or gullies. The abundance of wooding oftentimes almost overcomes the beholder with the helplessness of humanity in such a region. The north winds which bring the rains are usually warm, while the south winds which blow up from the Antarctic regions are dry and cold. These and the west winds, which have such a stretch of sea to blow over, bring the worst storms, for they are not impeded for thousands of miles.