THE VOYAGE OP THE HASSLER 151 



and walk where the carriage could not go, but it was 

 lovely with bits of wood and groups of trees dotted 

 all over it as if they had been arranged by a landscape 

 gardener to produce picturesque effects. It reminded 

 me of park scenery in England and would need little 

 training to make it as beautiful. This brings us to the 

 shore where a large river (the Rio-Rio) pours into the 

 sea; on one side of the beach the quiet waters of the 

 river make a gentle ripple, on the other a furious 

 ocean surf drives in on very broken masses of rock. 

 At one end of the beach is a superb cliff pierced by a 

 cave. Altogether the scenery is very wild and pictur- 

 esque. Here in the river side of the bay we drew the 

 seine and Agassiz got many valuable specimens. Af- 

 terwards we went up to the fishermen's tents on the 

 bank. Certainly poverty is a great deal more pictur- 

 esque in Southern countries than in Northern ones. 

 Any one of these huts with their deep porches, on the 

 walls of which are hanging the fishing nets, the oars, 

 the saddle, perhaps, and working tools of all sorts, 

 while a pussy cat sits on a cross beam and looks out 

 through the thatch, and cocks and hens and dogs and 

 children group about a handful of fire in the mud 

 floors, would make a picture; I know it's no less 

 squalid and miserable than poverty in one of our Irish 

 tenements, but it's ever so much prettier. It attracts 

 instead of repelling you. 



We returned to the ranch for dinner with Chileno 

 country dishes, a casuela, a sort of half stew, half soup 

 made of chicken, puchero, a dish which reminds me 

 of Meg Merrilies' famous stew in the gypsy cave, 



