Life at a Country-seat near Valparaiso. 311 



ferent kind of vehicle, an American mail-coach as it is termed, 

 from its having been first organized by a North American, 

 which admitted of our seeing a different range of country. 

 In this journey we were fortunate enough to be accompanied 

 by Mr. James Volckmann, a young German gentleman, who 

 is an active colleague of the renowned geologist, Mr. Pissis, 

 and has already himself contributed many valuable additions 

 to our acquaintance with the geology of Chile. The coach 

 stopping at Melepilla, the next station, a neat little town 

 nestling on a level surface at the foot of a lovely valley, 

 whence it was to proceed the following morning to the port, 

 we took advantage of the opportunity to pay an impromptu 

 visit to a Chilean family in the neighbourhood, to which we 

 had introduction. We rode out accordingly to the hacienda 

 of Las Esmeraldas, about two miles distant from Melepilla, 

 where we were received like old friends of the hospitable 

 family Lecaros. Most of the wealthy landowners of the 

 country pass only a few months of each year in their splen- 

 did houses at Valparaiso or Santiago, and spend the rest of 

 their time in affluent retirement upon their properties. The 

 small, externally unsightly, mansion was furnished within 

 with all that could minister to that genuine English notion 

 of COMFORT ; and the ladies, though the hour was so late that 

 they could scarcely have expected any further visitors, re- 

 ceived us in full Parisian toilette. This sur^^rised us the 

 more, inasmuch as the national costume is very much more 

 graceful than that of Europe, — even an elderly female, dressed 



