178 SANTIAGO. 



of rain, in the latter part of autumn. With the first shower from heaven, vegetation, which 

 has lain dormant on the mountains and hill-sides since December, springs forth as though by 

 magic ; and in the briefest space the slopes and curves, that have been parched and desolate 

 since that period, are clothed in the brightest verdure. After one of these continued storms the 

 elevated ranges display only masses of snow ; a little lower the black and grayish rocks occa- 

 sionally peep out; and lower still, where the heat of the valley has been felt, there are lines of 

 white and gray, green and black, intermingled as in mosaic work. As the power f the sun is 

 felt, low, dense, lead-colored clouds overhang the valley. A little above them, or apparently 

 so to us, there are long lines of feathery cumuli, like wreaths, floating midway to the summits 

 of the Andes, whose loftiest peaks shine glittering in the sunlight. At times the clouds hang 

 so low over the valley, that the sunbeams to us only illuminate the lower portion of the mount- 

 ains, first dazzlingly, then changing to softer tints orange, rose color, and violet. Anon 

 comes the shadow of the Central chain above the feathery wreaths, casting on the snow an 

 intensely black image, that perceptibly creeps upward as you look at it ; and, at the same time, 

 a portion of the lower cumuli, expanding under the increasing warmth derived from the sun 

 and earth, change their colors to the darkest azure, and float away. It is after these rains, too, 

 that all impurities appear to have been washed out of the atmosphere, and the staig seem to 

 move in mid-space, twinkling and glittering with wonderful brilliancy. 



The city is divided into quadras (squares), somewhat less than 420 feet each way, with a 

 stream of water, answering the purposes of a sewer, through every one. Its streets are generally 

 paved, and most of them have sidewalks five or six feet wide ; but as the immediate outskirts 

 are not so improved, and the rule has been to make the centre lower than the sides of the streets, 

 the condition of the thoroughfares leading out of Santiago during the wet season is disgraceful 

 in the extreme. Why it should be suffered, while the land inclines so rapidly, andi there is 

 usually a stream for artificial irrigation on each side, is comprehensible only on the assumption 

 that, like the Chinese, they make no innovations on the customs of their forefathers. This, 

 and the wretched ranchos on each side, whose squalid denizens squat in the sun against their 

 mud-splashed walls, surrounded by troops of yelping curs, is scarcely calculated to impress an 

 arriving stranger favorably. 



Ten minutes' sharp driving through miry sloughs if winter, or clouds of dust if summer, will 

 carry one over the paved portion of any street from its limit to the great plaza, very neaw which 

 is the only hotel having any pretensions to style or convenience : comfort, in our sense r is out of 

 the question in any South American public house. There are two or three eating-houres where 

 lodgings may be obtained, not far from the same locality ; but the limited number of travellers 

 through a city on the outskirts of civilization, and the habits of the people themselves, have not 

 yet created the necessity for an Astor House, Mivart's, or Hotel des Princes ; so that the most 

 commodious hotel in Santiago only possesses some thirty small and untidy rooms, in the second 

 story of a very stylish-looking house one square distant from the plaza. When it is known that 

 the fear of earthquakes has very generally caused the alto (second story) to be avoided by the 

 family to whom it belongs, and that this prejudice usually excludes aspirants to fashion from 

 their occupation, a proper estimate may be formed of the position "mine inn" holds in the world 

 of elegance. 



As in all Spanish America on the western slope of the Andes, earthquakes suggested th propri- 

 ety of low houses ; whilst the scarcity of timber, of suitable clay for handsome bricks, and of fuel, 

 even were the clay accessible, have compelled the use of adobes .* There is good stone for build- 

 ing, in abundance ; but the mechanics are behind the age in its manipulation- blasting, trans- 

 porting, and dressing and a cart-load of roughly broken bits quarried from Santa Lucia for found- 

 ations, will cost at least double the sum that would be asked in the United States, although in 

 the latter case it might have been brought a hundred miles by rail-car. Consequently, there 



* Clay with an admixture of straw, formed in a- mould, and dried in the sun. They are eighteen inches long, nine inches wide,, 

 and three inches thick. 



