iJOUND CAPE HORN VALPARAISO SANTIAGO. 105 



with a pair of shafts projecting about two feet beyond 

 the horse^s nose — a loose ramshackle machine, especially 

 designed to combine the most noise with the most 

 jolting. The quadruped inside the shafts looks some- 

 thing like a cross between a forest pony and a gigantic 

 species of rat; the harness consists of a complicated 

 arrangement of old bits of hide, string, and scraps of 

 leather; an extraordinary individual, the cocliero, in a 

 dirty white coat, wide straw hat, with a huge whip and 

 a straw cigarette, keeps up a continual yelling or crack- 

 ing of the aforesaid whip. Imagine all this, and you 

 have some faint idea of a Valparaiso cab ; only get inside 

 one, and you will have a much more vivid idea of it. 

 They seem omnipresent ; appear at the door of your 

 hotel, and immediately five or six of them dart at you 

 like pike at a dace. They seem to know intuitively a 

 fresh arrival, especially one from Britain, and follow one 

 all along the pavement like a funeral procession. " Patron ! 

 Patroncito ! here you are! mira ! ten cents only!^^ and 

 sure enough the wretched half-starved animal no sooner 

 hears the slam of the door behind him than he jumps off 

 like a pea from a shooter, aided by two or three artistic 

 cuts with the whip planted with admirable dexterity over 

 his nose and ears. He darts here and there, down alleys 

 and up lanes, his head on one side, kicking, shying, and 

 tugging away at the machine behind him like a demon ; 

 when you are just about half-killed, and had your break- 

 fast all but shaken out of you, you pull up at your des- 

 tination with a jerk that nearly throws you on the oppo- 

 site seat on your nose ; and for all this amusement you 

 only pay ten cents ! It is the cheapest bit of gymnastics 

 I know of, with just a spice of danger to give a zest to 

 it. When my readers reflect that this animal goes 



