268 AN AMUSING CONVERSATION, [chap. xii. 



does not appear at all well adapted for that purpose. 

 Burchell * states that some of the tribes in Southern Africa 

 dig up roots by the aid of a stick pointed at one end, the 

 force and weight of which is increased by a round stone 

 with a hole in it, into which the other end is firmly wedged. 

 It appears probable, that the Indians of Chile formerly used 

 some such rude agricultural instrument. 



One day, a German collector in natural history, of the 

 name of Renous, called, and nearly at the same time an 

 old Spanish lawyer. I was amused at being told the con- 

 versation which took place between them. Renous speaks 

 Spanish so well, that the old lawyer mistook him for a 

 Chilian. Renous, alluding to me, asked him what he 

 thought of the King of England sending out a collector to 

 their country, to pick up lizards and beetles, and to break 

 stones? The old gentleman thought seriously for some 

 time, and then said, ** It is not well — hay un gato encerrado 

 aqui (there is a cat shut up here). No man is so rich as 

 to send out people to pick up such rubbish. I do not like 

 it : if one of us were to go and do such things in England, 

 do not you think the King of England would very soon 

 send us out of his country ? " And this old gentleman, from 

 his profession, belongs to the better informed and more 

 intelligent classes! Renous himself, two or three years 

 before, left in a house at San Fernando some caterpillars, 

 under charge of a girl to feed, that they might turn into 

 butterflies. This was rumoured through the town, and at 

 last the padres and governor consulted together, and 

 agreed it must be some heresy. Accordingly, when Renous 

 returned, he was arrested. 



September i^th. — We left Yaquil, and followed the flat 

 valley, formed like that of Quillota, in which the Rio 

 Tinderidica flows. Even at these few miles south of 

 Santiago the climate is much damper ; in consequence there 

 were fine tracts of pasturage, which were not irrigated. 

 {20th) We followed this valley till it expanded into a great 

 plain, which reaches from the sea to the mountains west 

 of Rancagua. We shortly lost all trees and even bushes ; 

 so that the inhabitants are nearly as badly off" for firewood 

 as those in the Pampas. Never having heard of these 

 plains, I was much surprised at meeting with such scenery 

 in Chile. The plains belong to more than one series of 

 diff'erent elevations, and they are traversed by broad, flat 



* Burchell's "Travels," vol. ii., p. 45. 



