468 EXPERIENCES CONTINUED. 



with red substituted for yellow on the breast, and dark or blackish brown for light brown on 

 the back and wings. Our robin is a more sprightly bird, and his breast is more decidedly 

 marked with red than that of his Chilean relative, which appears to have inherited the charac- 

 teristic of greater bipeds, and takes things easily. He will permit himself to be driven between 

 hedges of brush six or seven feet high that incline towards each other, and to be knocked on the 

 head with a stick rather than attempt to fly over such barriers. The horned plover, or, as it is 

 called by the natives, Keltehue, takes his English appellation from a horny projection half an 

 inch long, that extends from the middle joint of each wing, and with which he makes war most 

 eifectually. His colors dark brown, white, and golden-green, combined most prettily are 

 still in strong contrast. 



Rambling among the laurels, myrtles, and arborescent cacti, that thrive on the southwest side 

 of Cerro Negro, with Tupungato towering above the plain in the northeast and the summit of 

 San Jose to the eastward, the day rolled away rapidly, and we were warned by the declining 

 sun only in time to reach the city after his departure. 



October 8. A storm of wind and rain, unparalleled for the season, continued almost without 

 intermission from 2^ A. M. until 7 o'clock of the evening. Very nearly four inches of water 

 were deposited on a level. As the accompanying wind was cold, that which fell on the cordil- 

 leras was converted into snow to within one thousand or fifteen hundred feet of the valley ; else 

 we might have had something of a flood in the river again. 



November 4. Made another excursion to the Salto de Agua, in the rear of San Cristoval. 

 On this occasion we followed the route along which we had returned at the previous visit. The 

 road hugs the northern base of the hill very closely ; and as it bends to the northeast after leaving 

 the suburbs, the ridge of the spur where traversed by the water is evidently much narrower 

 than the southern terminus of the hill. Nothing could have been more beautiful than the 

 appearance of the country. From the unusually late rains, the hills which at this time of the 

 preceding year presented a scorched and desolate appearance were now covered with flowers and 

 verdure. As far up the sides as the artificial supply can be led from the principal stream, there 

 were fields of beans and maize the former already bearing their long edible pods, and the 

 latter beginning to tassel. In the valley, the dark foliage of the fig and olive ; the dense groves 

 of peach and cherry trees bending under loads of green fruit ; the walnuts and poplars, with 

 the odor of the full-blown new leaves ; and the delicious perfume from that ugly touch-me- 

 not the Acacia cavenia were charms an admirer of the vegetable kingdom would not easily 

 tire of. 



A most lovely picture there was from one spot. Almost over our heads were craggy peaks 

 sharply defined against the sky, bold and picturesquely grouped as nature had cast them at the 

 creation. A few yards lower, where time with his disintegrating tooth had deposited the nib- 

 blings of ages to form a foot-stool for Flora, the broad arms of quiscos sheltered the first patches 

 of verdure from the scorching rays of the sun. From herbage, as the eye descended it encountered 

 shrubs with yellow flowers, myrtles, lilies, calceolarias, tropaeolums, fumarias, alstrcemerias, 

 calandrinias, with a host of other flowers, whose species even it would require a skilled botanist 

 to name ; whilst here and there a rocky mass peeped from the foliage, as though to witness how 

 his dominion had been overrun. A half-grown herd-boy stood on one of the latter, over whose 

 face a miniature cascade tumbled gracefully, the foamy stream plashing over the lad's feet, and 

 his sleek-looking cattle browsing within reach of his voice. Farther down, and as far as the 

 road-side, were patches of garden vegetables, with laborers busily at work among them ; and 

 beyond this stretching away to the Western Cordilleras a broad sea-like plain, interspersed 

 with evidences of civilized life to adorn the handiwork of nature. 



Our party was but a small one, composed exclusively of Americans, desirous to inhale the fresh 

 country air as we enjoyed the prospect commanded by an elevated position on the mountain 

 spur. We had therefore made preparations to pass the day at a spot near the Salto, whence 

 we could climb cliffs and explore the ravines at leisure 5 but after scaling the face of the hill, 



