158 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



A veil of morning haze or mist, not uncommon at 

 this season, hung over the city and marred the com- 

 pleteness of the grand view from the summit of the 

 Cerro. Though easily explained, the seeming opacity 

 of a thin stratum of vapour seen from above, as I 

 have often noticed in the Alps, is remarkable. Before 

 we started, and after our return, the haze over the 

 city was scarcely perceptible. Not only did the sun 

 shine brightly in the town, but the outlines of the 

 neighbouring peaks were perfectly distinct. Looking 

 down from the upper station, the slight differences in 

 the intensity of the comparatively feeble light pro- 

 ceeding from the various objects on the surface, by 

 which alone they are made visible, were concealed by 

 the haze which reflected a portion of the comparatively 

 strong light received from the sky, just as when looking 

 from the outside at a window which reflects the light 

 from the sky, we cannot distinguish objects within. 



In the afternoon Mr. Swinburne was good enough 

 to accompany me in a visit to Don Benjamin Vicuna 

 Mackenna, one of the most conspicuous and remark- 

 able of the contemporary public men of Chili. His 

 career has been in many ways singular. In early life 

 he took part in two attempts of a revolutionary 

 nature. Fortunately for themselves, the Chilians have 

 gained from their own and their neighbours' experience 

 a fixed aversion to revolution, and, while acknowledging 

 the existence of abuses, have felt that violent change is 

 certain to entail worse evils. Both attempts failed, and 

 the leaders were condemned to death, the sentences 

 being judiciously commuted to temporary exile. 



Since his return, Mr. Mackenna has done good 



