98 Cruise of the "Alert" 



Chilian river otter, the " huillin " {Lutra kuidobrio), it is easily 

 known by its dental characters as well as by its tail and feet. 

 The hind feet are webbed as in the beaver. I dissected one 

 which we shot, and found the stomach full of green vegetable 

 matter, and in the abdominal cavity, which was a good deal 

 injured by the shot, were fragments of a large tapeworm. This 

 specimen weighed i o lbs., and measured 2 ft. 10 in. from snout 

 to extremity of tail. 



Some days subsequently I accompanied Captain Maclear on 

 a railway trip up the country, Mr. Lawrence, the superintendent 

 of the line, having, with the courtesy so characteristic of English 

 residents in Chili, invited the captain and one other officer to 

 join him in a tour of inspection which he was about to make 

 along the Angol branch of the South Chilian railway. We 

 started from Concepcion at 9 a.m., on a small locomotive which 

 was set apart for the use of the superintendent. It was a lightly 

 built affair, partly "housed in" and partly open, and was fitted 

 to accommodate two or three passengers besides the driver and 

 fireman, so that it afforded us an exceedingly pleasant method of 

 seeing something of the country. This swift little vehicle was 

 called the "Quillapan," in commemoration of a distinguished native 

 chief of that name. Our driver was a most intelligent and well- 

 informed Englishman named Clark, who had lost his foot about 

 three years previously in a railway accident, at which I understood 

 that Lady Brassey, of the Sunbeam, had been present ; and he 

 spoke gratefully of the kind attention which she paid to him. His 

 wooden leg did not seem to be much impediment to his engine- 

 driving, for he rattled us along round curves and down inclines at 

 a speed which, while possessing all the charms of novelty, had also 

 in no small degree the excitement of danger. However, we soon 

 got used to this, as well as to the jumping and jolting of the light 

 little engine. 



For the first ten miles after leaving Concepcion, our route lay 

 along the right or northerly bank of the Bio Bio river. Here 



