140 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



weeks' time. In the afternoon I climbed up one of 

 the steep tracks leading to the upper part of the town, 

 where the population mainly consists of the poorest 

 class. The houses were small and frail looking, but 

 fairly clean, and I nowhere saw indications of abject 

 want, such as may too often be witnessed in the out- 

 skirts of a large European city. 



Valparaiso has all the air of a busy place, with 

 some features to which we are not used in Europe. 

 Along the line of the narrow main street tramcars 

 are constantly passing to and fro. The names over 

 the shops, many of which are large and handsome, 

 are mainly foreign, German being, perhaps, in a 

 majority ; but the important mercantile houses are 

 chiefly English, and, except among the poorer class, 

 the English language appears to be predominant. 

 All people engaged in business acquire it when young, 

 and very many of Spanish descent speak it with 

 fluency and correctness. The Hotel Colon stands 

 between the main street and a broad quay, part of 

 the space reclaimed from the margin of the bay, and 

 my windows overlooked the busy scene, thronged 

 from daylight till evening with a crowd of men and 

 vehicles. It was somewhat startling to see frequent 

 railway trains run through the crowd, with no other 

 precaution than the swinging of a large bell on the 

 locomotive to warn people to get out of the way. 



I started soon after daylight on the loth for a 

 botanical excursion over the hills behind the town, 

 and, as I had rather exaggerated expectations of the 

 harvest to be collected, I had engaged a boy to carry 

 a portfolio wherein to stow away what I could not 



