17 



Near one of them I saw a largish hlack Waterrail 

 (Rallus antarcticus ?). 



Toward dusk we arrived at Puren and found indeed 

 some place to lie down our heads for the night. 



I soon inquired after the Auracaria woods or Finales 

 as they call them, but was grieviously disappointed to 

 hear after no end of inquiry, that they could not be 

 reached from Puren. 



The apparently most sensible advice I could get was 

 that we should return to Los Sauces and from there take 

 train to Angol from which last place the Pinales would 

 probably be within riding distance. 



We now decided to stop one day at Puren and to make 

 an excursion to the lake Lanalhue. So next morning having 

 got some horses we rode out to this effect. 



The w^ay took us over some mountains overgrown with 

 forests. In the trees I saw for the first time in Chili the 

 beautiful flowering Kreeper, Lapageria rosea. 



Its large red bell-like flowers were seen almost every- 

 where. The flowers are very thick of texture and full of 

 moisture so that they keep fresh a long time after having 

 been picked. 



This is their undoing. The settlers gather whole quan- 

 tities of them and hang them up in their rooms without 

 giving them water. Treated in this cruel way they manage 

 to linger on for several days before they wither. In Chili 

 they delight in illusing things they may be beasts, birds 

 or plants! 



After some hours riding over the hills, through helas 

 for a good deal burnt, or much injured woodland, the lake 

 came into view. On the way I often saw the beautiful 

 Taenioptera p>lirope Kittl. a grey bird of the size of a small 

 thrush, pearl grey with white throat and darker crown. 

 This bird was very inquisitive and would come well for- 

 ward as we passed. Sometimes it would take a short cut 

 and perch on some bare branch in front of us to see us 

 yass a second time. 



From Contulmo which lays in a plain about I'/j mile 



Notes from the Leyden Mitiseum, "V^ol. XXXV. 



2 



