Placa de darwin en cerro La Campana Olmue Chile

Cerro la Campana, the Bell mountain, is a mountain in

La Campana National Park La Campana National Park is located in the Cordillera de la Costa, Quillota Province, in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. La Campana National Park and the Vizcachas Mountains lie northwest of Santiago. This national park covers approximately a ...

in central

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. The

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

and the mountain

Aconcagua Aconcagua () is a mountain in the Principal Cordillera of the Andes mountain range, in Mendoza Province, Argentina. It is the highest mountain in the Americas, the highest outside Asia, and the highest in the Southern Hemisphere with a summi ...

are visible from the summit on clear days. Due to the area's expanding human population, considerable

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated ...

occurred on the previously heavily wooded areas of this mountain from approximately 1900 AD onwards. One of the significant tree species extant on Cerro La Campana is the

Chilean Wine Palm ''Jubaea'' is a genus of palms with one species, ''Jubaea chilensis'' or ''Jubaea spectabilis'', commonly known in English as the Chilean wine palm or Chile cocopalm, and palma chilena in Spanish. It is native to southwestern South America and i ...

, ''

Jubaea chilensis ''Jubaea'' is a genus of palms with one species, ''Jubaea chilensis'' or ''Jubaea spectabilis'', commonly known in English as the Chilean wine palm or Chile cocopalm, and palma chilena in Spanish. It is native to southwestern South America and i ...

''; this

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

palm prehistorically had a much wider distribution. When the second survey voyage of HMS ''Beagle'' arrived at Valparaiso on 23 July 1834,

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

took residence ashore to explore the area. On 14 August he obtained horses and set off with a companion "on a geological excursion" to the base of the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

. They reached the Hacienda de San Isidro, sited at the foot of ''Cerro La Campana'', and on the morning of 16 August after being given a guide and fresh horses they began their ascent. In his notes on the vegetation seen on the way up, including a sort of bamboo, he described the process by which sap resembling honey was obtained from the palms. In the evening they camped at a spring named the Agua del Guanaco, then on the next morning climbed the "rough mass" of fragmented greenstone to the summit, where they spent the day. A plaque on the path to the top commemorates Darwin's ascent. Darwin enjoyed the day thoroughly, writing "Chile & its boundaries the Andes & the Pacifick were seen as in a Map. .... Who can avoid admiring the wonderful force which has upheaved these mountains, & even more so the countless ages which it must have required to have broken through, removed & levelled whole masses of them?" All over the mountain he had seen attempts at gold mining, and even on the summit a small pit had been excavated. After another evening talking round their camp fire, they descended on the following day by a different route to the Hacienda, and continued on to

Quillota Quillota is a city located in the Aconcagua River valley in central Chile's Valparaíso Region. It is the capital and largest city of Quillota Province, where many inhabitants live in the outlying farming areas of San Isidro, La Palma, Pococ ...

on their way to

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

References

External links

* ''

plaque on YouTube

Mountains of Chile Chilean Coast Range {{SouthAm-mountain-stub

See also

References

External links