CHAPTER XXI. 



CHILE. MAGELLAN'S STRAITS. FALKLAND ISLANDS. 

 ASCENSION. 



Valparaiso. The Andes not Conspicuous. Cattle lassoed in the Streets. 

 Excursion up the Uspallata Pass. Leafless Mistletoe on the Leafless 

 Cactus. An Equestrian Hair-Cutter. Dead and disabled Animals 

 on the Pass. Use of the Lasso in Robbery and Flirtation. Clever- 

 ness of a Horse on a Mountain Path. Fjords of the Western Coast 

 of Patagonia. Density of the Forest. An Anchor Broken. Fuegians. 

 Wild Geese at Elizabeth Island. Kitchen Middens. The Falkland 

 Islands. Visit to Port Darwin. Scotchmen turned Gauchos. Chapinas 

 and Tropijes. Wild Horses and their Habits. Various Modes of 

 Handling Cattle in Diiferent Parts of the World. Goose-Bolas made 

 of Knuckle-Bones. Flies and Gnats with Rudimentary Wings. 

 Skeleton of Ziphioid Whale. Fuegian Arrow-heads Scattered in the 

 Islands. Habits of Jackass Penguin. Ascension Island. Land 

 Crabs. The Hatching of Turtles' Eggs. Shooting at Flying Fish. 

 Birds at Boatswain Bird Island. 



Valparaiso, Chile. November 19th to December Uth, 

 1875. — How Valparaiso came to be called the Vale of Paradise 

 I cannot well understand ; the voyagers who so named it must 

 have come from a desert land indeed. The surrounding country 

 has a most barren and inhospitable appearance, the red decom- 

 posed granite soil showing bare everywhere, and being only 

 here and there sprinkled over with scanty bushes. Not a tree 

 is to be seen anywhere from the anchorage in the harbour, 

 though a wide view is thence obtained of the coast of the Bay. 



I had expected the far-famed Andes to show out as a splendid 

 range in the background ; but these mountains, though they 

 look close to the coast on the map, lie so far inland that one 

 has to search for them in the view from the Bay in order to 

 see them at all. Even then they are only to be discerned on 

 a clear day, and when seen they look small and not at all 

 imposing. The residents on the hill-slopes know where the 

 higher peaks lie, and point them out to strangers ; but there is 

 nothing in their appearance which would lead one to suspect 

 their real grandeur were one not acquainted with it before- 

 hand. 



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