EOUND CAPE HOEN VALPARAISO SANTIAGO. 125 



constructed might very well pass for those in a Belgravian 

 terrace. I don^t intend to ^^ describe '^ tlie city as tlie 

 guide books do ; neither I nor anyone else, I suppose, 

 ever did gain the faintest idea of a place from a guide 

 book only ; thus I will merely mention some of its more 

 noticeable features. 



The Alameda, about which one hears and reads so 

 much, disappointed me ; indeed, I was a long time in it 

 without knowing so. It is simply a long wide street, 

 with two streams of water running down it ; by the 

 side of these streams are two rows of poplars, and the 

 space between forms the favourite walking place of 

 the Santiaguinos ; there are some fine houses on each 

 side, and some very bad ones ; there is a fountain or two, 

 and a statue of some patriot or other on a horse 

 prancing about with no stirrups. The whole thing re- 

 mtuds me something of the broad walk in the Regent's 

 Park. The Campo del Marte, or Champs de Mars, is a 

 large green inclosure or common where reviews and races 

 are held; there is nothing noticeable in it. Of course I 

 went to see the Mint ; it is an enormous building, cover- 

 ing a whole cuadra or square, but it has no architectural 

 beauty, is whitewashed all over, and every window is 

 strongly barred. By-the-bye, every house in South 

 America has its window barred up Hke a jail, on account 

 of the revolutions ; on these occasions people get 

 " mixed '' in their ideas of meum and tuum. The Museum 

 of Chile I found after some little trouble ; it contains a 

 small collection of birds and animals. Formerly the 

 place was in a state of great dilapidation, but since 

 an Englishman has had charge of it an improvement 

 has taken place, though even now it has a broken- 

 down appearance. The collection of minerals is good. 



