250 CENTRAL CHILE. [<:n\t. xn. 



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

 Eenous, called, and nearly at the same time an old Spanish lawyer. 

 I was amused at being told the conversation which took place be- 

 tween them. Eenous speaks Spanish so well, that the old lawyer 

 mistook him for a Chilian. Eenous, 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 intelli- 

 gent classes ! Eenous 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 

 Eenous returned, he was arrested. 



September 19^. We left Yaquil, and followed the flat valley, 

 formed like that of Quillota, in which the Eio Tinderidica flows. 

 Even at these few miles south of Santiago the climate is much 

 damper; in consequence there are flue tracts of pasturage, which 

 are not irrigated. (20th.) We followed this valley till it expanded 

 into a great plain, which reaches from the sea to the mountains 

 west of Eancagua. 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 sur- 

 prised at meeting with such scenery in Chile. The plains belong 

 to more than one series of different elevations, and they are tra- 

 versed by broad flat-bottomed valleys ; both of which circumstances, 

 as in Patagonia, bespeak the action of the sea on gently rising land. 

 In the steep cliffs bordering these valleys, there are some largo 

 caves, which no doubt were originally formed by the waves : one of 

 these is celebrated under the name of Cueva del Obispo ; having 

 formerly been consecrated. During the day I felt very unwell, and 

 from that time till the end of October did not recover. 



September 22cZ. We continued to pass over green plains without 

 a tree. The next day we arrived at a house near Navedad, on the 



