RAILWAY TO SANTIAGO. 149 



Hotel Oddo at Santiago to secure for me accommoda- 

 tion. With the usual difficulty of effecting an early 

 start, which appears to prevail everywhere in South 

 America, I reached the railway station in time for the 

 7.45 a.m. train. For some distance the railroad runs 

 near the sea, passing the station of Vina del Mar, 

 where many of the Valparaiso merchants have pretty 

 villas. I was more attracted by the appearance of 

 the country about the following station of Salto, 

 where rough, rocky ground, with clumps of small trees 

 and the channels of one or more streams, promised 

 well for a spring visit. But I was at every turn 

 reminded that I had fallen on the most unfavourable 

 season. After the long six or seven months' drought 

 the face of the country was everywhere parched, and 

 the only matter for surprise was that there should 

 yet remain some vestiges of its summer garb of 

 vegetation. 



The direct distance from Valparaiso to Santiago is 

 only about fifty-five miles, but the line chosen for the 

 railway must be fully double that length. The country 

 lying directly between the sea-coast and the capital 

 is broken up by irregular masses, partly granitic and 

 partly formed of greenstone and other hard igneous 

 rocks. These in Europe would be regarded as con- 

 siderable mountains, as the summits range from six 

 thousand to over seven thousand feet in height, but 

 they nowhere exhibit the bold and picturesque forms 

 that characterize the granite formation in Brazil. On 

 either side of this highland tract two considerable 

 streams carry the drainage of the Cordillera to the 

 ocean. The northern stream, the Rio Aconcagua, 



