146 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



white as the purest marble to the summit, and the 

 crater clearly defined against the sky. We anchored 

 in the Port San Pedro, no port in the sense of settle- 

 ment, only a harbor surrounded by forest-covered 

 hills, the silence unbroken except for the cry of the 

 birds which whiten the rocks and now and then the 

 rush of a steamer duck through the water. We went 

 on shore at a lovely Httle beach and collected animals 

 and plants. The flowers on the bank of this beach 

 were beautiful, among others a superb specimen of 

 the wild pineapple kind with very large crimson 

 leaves and lilac centre. We enjoyed our ramble on 

 this beach very much, and we saw from there a sunset 

 I shall never forget. The opening of the harbor gave 

 us a full view of the snow mountains, and Agassiz 

 said he had not often in his life seen the Alps in such 

 beauty at that hour. 



We put to sea again and made the upper end of the 

 island [of Chiloe] and anchored at the little town of 

 Ancud, or San Carlos, on Monday, the eighth. I see 

 that the book speaks of this generally as a squalid lit- 

 tle place and of the climate as dreary, rainy and foggy 

 to the last degree. Everything depends upon the 

 circumstances under which things are presented to 

 you. All I can say is that the little town of Ancud 

 on one of the most brilliantly beautiful days we have 

 had seemed to me a cosy, cheerful, picturesque little 

 place. Her great volcano, Osorno, was quite uncov- 

 ered, without a cloud, and so was the whole snowy 

 Cordillera, the southern spurs, I suppose, of the Andes. 

 We only intended to stay a few hours, and while 



