94 NOTES OF A NATURALIST, 



the plant spreads easily in favourable conditions. As 

 far as I know, all the evidence as to the plant being 

 indigenous in Peru and Bolivia is open to suspicion, 

 and the only part of the continent where it can be 

 said to be certainly a native is Southern Chili and 

 the sub-Alpine region of the Chilian Andes. 



The excursion to the upper region apparently com- 

 pleted the work of acclimatization. We slept soundly, 

 and no symptoms of soroche was afterwards experi- 

 enced. When I sallied forth on the morning of the 

 23rd in quest of breakfast, which was made luxurious 

 by a tin of Swiss milk received by the train from 



Lima, I found my friend W conversing in English 



with a Chilian officer. This gentleman, introduced as 



Captain B , the son of English parents, was about 



proceeding in command of a small detachment to 

 occupy some place beyond the Cordillera. The 

 number of Englishmen in the Chilian service is not 

 small, and there is no part of South America where 

 the conditions of climate, the habits of life, and the 

 character of the people seem to be so well suited to 

 our countrymen. 



One of the sights of Chicla was the daily despatch 

 of trains of laden animals towards the interior. In 

 the opposite direction the traffic was very limited, for 

 since the war the working of the silver mines about 

 Cerro de Pasco has been suspended, and little of the 

 produce of the montaiia now makes its way to the 

 coast. But, war or no war, the wants of the inland 

 population, living in a region which produces nothing 

 but food and raw material, must in some measure 

 be supplied. There was nothing very new in seeing 



