WINTER SEASON APPROACHING. 163 



sistently with the promise I had given before leaving 

 home to avoid all risks to health. From the abun- 

 dance of fresh snow along the range, it was obvious 

 that the precipitation on the higher flanks of the 

 Cordillera must be considerably greater than it is in 

 the low country, where only one or two slight showers 

 had fallen ; and we were in the season when rain is 

 annually expected, which, of course, would take the 

 form of snow in the higher region. I had already 

 obtained a letter to the manager of the mines at Las 

 Condes, a place about fifteen miles from Santiago, 

 and some eight thousand feet above the sea. But, 

 after taking counsel with those best informed, I de- 

 cided on giving a few days to a visit to the Baths of 

 Cauquenes, in the valley of the Cachapoal, a little 

 above the point where that stream issues from the 

 mountains into the plain of Central Chili. There 

 remained a possibility of making an excursion from 

 Cauquenes into one of the interior valleys, especially 

 that of Cypres, famed for the variety of high moun- 

 tain plants that find a home near the glacier which 

 descends ipto it, and there was the advantage that 

 even in case of bad weather no serious inconvenience 

 would arise. 



I started next morning, May 14, by the railway, 

 which is carried nearly due south from the capital to 

 Talca, and thence to Concepcion. I found myself in 

 the same carriage with Mr. Hess, the lessee and 

 manager of the Baths, an energetic, practical man, 

 fully impressed with a sense of his own importance 

 as head of an establishment which annually attracts 

 the best society of Chili. The railway journey, which 



