OX AMERICAN SOIL 175 



China, Belgium, North America, England, France, Chile, 

 Switzerland and many other countries stand peacefully 

 alongside of each other. The materials used differ as 

 much as do the countries which their styles represent. 

 Most buildings are of wooden material, many others of 

 brick, iron, zinc and copper. Brick houses with metal 

 roofs, iron doors and window casings are very much the 

 style here and those who are able to afford the great out- 

 lay generally favor the latter, because they offer better 

 resistance in case of fire than any of wholly metal struc- 

 ture, which have proven impracticable during great con- 

 flagrations. It is said that the intense heat of some big- 

 fires has softened the metal built houses to such an extent 

 that they became almost useless. There is no way of 

 repairing such damage to metal built houses as the wages 

 for building mechanics, no matter what metal they work 

 in, are so enormously high that the repairs would cost 

 much more than the importation of a new structure from 

 England or the Eastern States. 



The streets which run through this gay appearing map 

 of edifices are still very hilly, but time will change that 

 easily and soon enough. As soon as the American finds 

 out that hills do not suit his purpose, he will find means 

 of moving them without much ado. lie will not try to 

 bring that about, like Mohammed, by faith, but by ma- 

 chines of the most varied and unheard-of construction, 

 which, however, have or seem to have all one common 

 feature, that of being very much ' ' for the purpose. ' ' One 

 of said machines is at present, working at leveling a sand 

 hill, about one hundred feet high, near Rincon point, the 

 Southern cud of the harbor. This machine consists of a 

 high pressure steam engine, which runs immense shovels 

 into the sand, then raises them and empties the contents 

 into a cart of special make. Each one of these carts holds 

 a box two feet deep, ten long and seven wide. Two of 

 the aforementioned shovels suffice to fill this cart, which 

 at once rolls off on rails to a certain point at the harbor, 

 where a single man awaits its coming and by touching 

 some simple mechanical device, manages to tilt the whole 



