266 Mr. H. J. Elwes on 



watering-place in a valley three hours south of Santiago 

 by rail, which has been described by Miss North, by Mr. 

 Ball, and by Darwin. Here I stayed four days and 

 collected all the species which were then out, but 

 failed in an attempt to reach the highest part of the 

 valley, where there is said to be good collecting ground 

 at 5000 to 6000 feet. This valley, however, is well 

 known in comparison with the mountains I afterwards 

 visited farther south, and has been visited by Reed and 

 others. The country around was dried up, hot and windy, 

 and the variety of insects not great, though I got one 

 species which seems to be undescribed. 



I then went by rail to Concepcion on the coast, three 

 hundred miles south of Santiago, and visited the beautiful 

 park and gardens of the late Sehora Cousinho at Lota, 

 where Mr. O'Reilly, the superintendent of the gardens 

 and plantations, was good enough to show me everything 

 he could. I found few butterflies, however, in this neigh- 

 bourhood though there is some very good-looking collect- 

 inor ground near Coronel, and some trees and shrubs 

 characteristic of Southern Chile, which do not occur much 

 farther north, are found on this part of the coast. 



On December 21st I left Concepcion by train, and got 

 to Chilian by 11 o'clock. From here there is a carriage 

 road to the celebrated Baths of Chilian situated in a 

 wooded valley of the Andes about sixty miles distant. 

 Starting in the afternoon in a carriage, I reached the second 

 stage of the journey at dark, and slept in a fair roadside 

 inn. From here the road to the Baths passes through a 

 country which was once covered with forest, and is still in 

 many parts most beautifully wooded, the last stage from 

 Las Trancas to the Baths being specially fine, through 

 splendid forests of beech, of Avhich three or four different 

 species constitute the principal forest trees in this latitude. 



At the Baths I found excellent accommodation and a 

 rich flora. This was Mr. Edmonds' best collecting ground, 

 and during January and February most of the peculiar 

 Chilean forest species may be found in the woods below 

 the Baths, and many of the Alpine species on the bare 

 mountains above them. I spent four days here, and got 

 the greater part of the species found by Edmond.'^, though 

 I was too early for two or three of the rarest. The snow 

 still lay at an elevation of 6000 to 7000 feet in shady places 

 near the Baths, and the weather, which had been wet 



