EXPERIENCES CONTINUED. } :'> '.( 



ii- clock, and sorely ti \ iii'_ r on<- 's t'-mper when el i stars came rapidly into the li-ld 



of tin- telescope, as was sometimes ih<- case, Il.-i'l they been mellow-toned \m\\n rung harmo- 

 niously, i.r tin- sharp iinl an^ry harks of faithful watch-dogs, one might have abided the intiir- 

 tinii ainiahlv ; but all S.inna;_co dues nut boast 8 sweet-lipped hell, and the little clap pent fly 

 as though Misp.-mied fr..m ill- ;' running cows; whilst the villanuiis d"ir* ,1,, nothing hut 



cmnher the sidewalks, ami fo.,t -pas-en^. -rs fearful of disturbing their slumbers must take the 

 outside ut' them. It hein-' ijuite certain that there is, on an average, one dog for every house in 

 Santiago, we are astonished tliat the city government permits such a wholly worthies* multi- 

 tude. It would be a different matter were revenue de-rived from their retention; but the city 

 imposes no taxes, except a very moderate one on every house, with which to pay for police and 

 lighting the streets. This amounts to nearly three fourths of one per cent, of what the house 

 rents for, and is collected from the occupant. House, furniture, and all other personal property 

 are exempted. Of course things work badly, and the means for repairs or improvements derived 

 from privileges to sell snow, kill cattle, &c., are wholly insufficient foY the wants of so extended 

 a city. 



Mmj. In company with Mr. P. and Prof. Domeyko, an early start was made one Sunday 

 morning, to examine two localities a few leagues distant. At one of these, the waters of the 

 .Maporho were said to disappear ; at the other, they re-issue from their subterranean filtration 

 thoroughly limpid. Striking the stream within half a league of the city, we continued between 

 its banks, fording and re-fording as often as it became necessary in pursuing our way among the 

 water- worn pebbles and sand. There is little change in the width or character of the bed for 

 four miles. It has an average breadth of one hundred and fifty yards, and is wholly composed 

 of the materials just mentioned. At this time the water in places was separated into two or 

 three rapid rivulets ; farther down, it was united into one stream perhaps ten or twelve yards 

 wide, and it is only during heavy and continued rains of winter that the volume is increased 

 to fill the wide space between the banks. That floods do so fill it, there are abundant traces to 

 show in the recent washings on either side of the low gravel-formed shores. At a league and 

 a half from Santiago the nature of the surface-soil somewhat changes, and the distance between 

 the banks is diminished to less than thirty yards, with a considerable but not proportionate 

 increase in the depth of the water-way. As there are no indications of overflows, it is evident 

 that a large body must percolate the pebbly reach just above ; and it was here, if anywhere, that 

 we expected to lose the stream. This was the place indicated ; but we found only such a diminu- 

 tion in the volume as could readily be accounted for in the multitude of irrigating channels, 

 and the ordinary operations of absorption and evaporation. Inquiry of guasos afforded little 

 satisfaction. The general opinion among them was, that the water only disappeared during a 

 portion of the summer, when they most needed it ; and that as soon as the rains began, there was 

 always abundance. However, they all asserted (and inquiry addressed to other creditable 

 persons on our return went to show) that there is such a locality as we were in search of some 

 eight or ten leagues farther to the south westward. Recollecting the difficulty of obtaining 

 correct information from countrymen even in lands where there is more intelligence among them, 

 the rivulets were followed a league farther, but without success; and we were only partially 

 rewarded for the task of tracing its abominable paths by seeing the plants of its peculiar botany 

 and a few novel specimens of birds. 



On our return, leaving the river to the right, wo struck into a main road that passes through 

 a village at the base of the Cuesta Renca. Dividing there, one branch of the road extends 

 westward ; the other passes over a portezuelo to the northern side of the hill, and thence along 

 a shallow lake formed by unconsurned water of the irrigating channels to the eastward. On 

 either side of the portezuelo the ground has been thoroughly perforated by field-rats, whose 

 principal sustenance is the bulbs of plants. So abundant is the Oxalis lobata there, that the 

 flowers which had matured under the rains of the few preceding days literally made patches 



