Bullocks on the Line. 101 



upper stations until our return, when the line would be clear for 

 it to move on. 



On our journey back we narrowly escaped colliding seriously with 

 a herd of bullocks. We had just passed Robleria, when we noticed 

 some distance ahead of us a solitary bullock standing quietly on 

 the line. On the whistle being sounded he at once left the track, 

 so that the steam, which had been momentarily turned off, was 

 again put on, and the engine resumed her usual speed. We had 

 now approached to within forty yards of the place where the 

 animal had been, when suddenly from a dense clump of bushes 

 to the right there emerged a herd of half-a-dozen bullocks, who 

 with one accord began leisurely to cross the line. Quick as thought 

 Clark with one hand turned op the whistle, while with the other 

 he reversed the engine, leaving the steam valve wide open ; and 

 immediately there was a great rattle of machinery below the 

 platform, and the engine checked her way considerably. And 

 now at .the last moment, and when the cattle seemed to be almost 

 under the buffers of the engine, they, suddenly coming to a sense 

 of their danger, scattered, and sheered off ; but not quickly enough 

 to prevent one unlucky animal being caught by the hind quarters 

 and chucked off like a football, its body rolling down the embank- 

 ment to the left in a cloud of dust as we whirled by. Clark 

 coolly replaced the reversing lever, and let the engine rush ahead 

 again as if nothing had happened. He remarked that if he had 

 been on one of the regular big engines he would not have bothered 

 himself about the beasts at all, but that half-a-dozen bullocks were 

 rather too much for the little " Quillapan." 



Another trip which we made was to the Island of Quiriquina, 

 which lies in the entrance of the bay at about five miles' distance 

 from the anchorage of Talcahuano. An hour's run in the steam 

 cutter brought us near the northern extremity of the island, where 

 we landed with difficulty in the Bay of Las Tablas. This name 

 has reference to the tabular form of the blocks of sandstone which 

 have fallen from the face of the cliffs and lie strewn on the beach. 



