Santa Lucia. 91 



arranged as to afford ready access to any groups of specimens. 

 In the spacious hall devoted to this department, we saw a section 

 of a beech tree from Magellan which was more than seven feet 

 in diameter, and the silicified trunk of a tree fifty centimetres in 

 diameter, which had been found near Santa Barbara. The mam- 

 malian collection included two specimens of the Huemul (Cervus 

 Chilensis), one of which was said to be the original figured by 

 Gay in his "Historia Physica y Politica de Chile." Among the 

 human crania were some very curious specimens illustrating the 

 extremes of dolicocephaly and brachycephaly. It is to be 

 regretted that the subsidy voted by the Chilian government for 

 the maintenance of this admirable museum does not exceed ;ioo 

 a year, and Dr. Phillipi may well be congratulated on the results 

 of his self-sacrificing labours. 



About the centre of the town of Santiago is a remarkable hill 

 called Santa Lucia, whose summit affords a very extended view. 

 It is a mass of columnar basalt rising abruptly from the plain to 

 a height of about 300 feet, and presenting on all sides boldly 

 scarped faces in which several flights of stone steps have been 

 ingeniously cut, so as to lead by various labyrinthine routes to the 

 summit. We made the ascent towards the close of day, and were 

 well repaid for our trouble by the really magnificent view. The 

 town lay extended at our feet with its various buildings and 

 monuments standing up in bold relief. As we raised our eyes, its 

 outskirts dwindled into the broad plain of Santiago valley, which 

 here seemed to form an immense amphitheatre, surrounded in the 

 distance by a chain of lofty hills whose snowcapped summits were 

 at this hour illumined with the lovely roseate colours so charac- 

 teristic of sunset in the Cordilleras. 



On the following day we visited the site of the church of La 

 Compania, where the fire took place in the year 1863, when some 

 2,ooo people, mostly women, were burnt to death. The church 

 was never rebuilt, but in its place now stands a handsome bronze 

 monument to commemorate the victims of this dreadful calamity. 



