THE OCEAN VOYAGE 139 



village streets there is only one single road which may 

 be called practicable; it leads along the bank of the 

 bay toward the old Fort San Carlos. All communica- 

 tions are sent either by water or over the narrow trails 

 of dried up mountain creek beds, such as I described 

 before. The climbing in these mountain paths is by no 

 means an easy matter for the uninitiated, as the rolling 

 pebbles cause one to slip, if not steadied by climbers, 

 which, in turn, have to be cut or cleared to make prog- 

 ress possible. Every now and then one has to crawl 

 along over and sometimes even under rocks or fallen 

 trees, wade through wild mountain streams or cross a 

 primitive bridge of joining branches, below which a 

 chasm or cave of unknown depth may be hiding. Often 

 these places are covered with fuschias of all kinds, below 

 which one sometimes hears the falling of the waters 

 from rock to rock. No matter where I went the sur- 

 roundings presented about the same picturesque char- 

 acter, though scarcely two places were alike; the change 

 of scenery was truly magnificent. 



The excursions by water were no less entertaining 

 than those by land, particularly those undertaken on the 

 brilliant moonlight nights, when we rowed along the 

 grayish coast rocks, from which the bushes often 

 touched our boat, while the splashing of the oars was 

 the only sound that disturbed the universal and pro- 

 found silence of the southern night. 



During my stay in Corral I had little desire to enter 

 the habitations of men and it is for that very reason that 

 I have learned very little of either. The Chileans, i. e., 

 the men, have well shaped features, dark or black, thick 

 beards, curly hair and beautiful black eyes, which har- 

 monize well with their dark complexion. The women, 

 on the contrary, are rather homely, almost all short and 

 stout, and old matrons at thirty. Even 1 1 1 * * young girls 

 are not to my taste, though it cannot be denied that 

 their fresh, round faces, their burning eyes and beau- 

 tiful black hair are great attractions. I have had the 

 opportunity of seeing a girl of slender build but once, 



