THE PUMA. 195 



them. Renous speaks Spanish so well, that the old lawyer mistook 

 him for a Chilian. Renous, alluding to me, asked him what he thought 

 of the King of England sending out a collector to their country, to pick 

 up lizards and beetles, and to break stones? The old gentleman 

 thought seriously for some time, and then said, " It is not well, hayun 

 gato encerrado aqui (there is a cat shut up here). No man is so rich as 

 to send out people to pick up such rubbish. I do not like it : if one of 

 us were to go and do such things in England, do not you think the 

 King of England would very soon send us out of his country?" And 

 this old gentleman, from his profession, belongs to the better informed 

 and more intelligent classes ! Renous himself, two or three years 

 before, left in a house at San Fernando some caterpillars, under charge 

 of a girl to feed, that they might turn into butterflies. This was 

 rumoured through the town, and at last the Padres and Governor 

 consulted together, and agreed it must be some heresy. Accordingly, 

 when Renous returned, he was arrested. 



September igth. We left Yaquil, and followed the flat valley, 

 formed like that of Quillota, in which the Rio Tinderidica flows. Even 

 at these few miles south of Santiago the climate is much damper ; in 

 consequence there were fine tracts of pasturage, which were not 

 irrigated. (2Oth) We followed this valley till it expanded into a great 

 plain, which reaches from the sea to the mountains west of Rancagua. 

 We shortly lost all trees and even bushes ; so that the inhabitants are 

 nearly as badly off for firewood as those in the Pampas. Never having 

 heard of these plains, I was much surprised at meeting with such 

 scenery in Chile. The plains belong to more than one series of 

 different elevations, and they are traversed by broad flat-bottomed 

 valleys ; both of which circumstances, as in Patagonia, bespeak the 

 action of the sea on gently rising land. In the steep cliffs bordering, 

 these valleys, there are some large caves, which no doubt were originally 

 formed by the waves : one of these is celebrated under the name of 

 Cueva del Obispo, having formerly been consecrated. During the day 

 I felt very unwell, and from that time till the end of October did not 

 recover. 



September 22nd. We continued to pass over green plains without a 

 tree. The next day we arrived at a house near Navedad, on the sea- 

 coast, where a rich Haciendero gave us lodgings. I stayed here the two 

 ensuing days, and although very unwell, managed to collect from the 

 tertiary formation some marine shells.' 



September 24th. Our course was now directed towards Valparaiso, 

 which with great difficulty I reached on the 27th, and was there con- 

 fined to my bed till the end of October. During this time I was an 

 inmate in Mr. Corfield's house, whose kindness to me I do not know 

 how to express. 



I will here add a few observations on some of the animals and birds 

 of Chile. The Puma, or South American Lion, is not uncommon. This 

 animal has a wide geographical range ; being found from the equatorial 

 forests, throughout the deserts of Patagonia, as far south as the damp 



