TOPOGEAPHY OF CHILI. 459 



continent, and in tlie northern it is outstrijjped by San Francisco alone. 

 Relatively to its population, scarcely more than 200,000, it covers a vast space, 

 all the houses, as is usual ia districts subject to earthquakes, being low even in 

 the business quarters, and generally built round one, two or even three jJrt^/os', 

 that is, courts or inclosures planted with trees. These structures are themselves 

 interrupted by broad thoroughfares, squares and avenues with long strips of 

 verdure, so that, seen from the crests of the encircling hills, Santiago has more 

 the aspect of a vast park than of a great city. The atmosphere is laden with the 

 fragrance of orange-groves, while the former grazing-grounds with their sparse 

 and scrubby vegetation have been transformed to lovely gardens by the fertilising 

 waters of the Muipo canal, the construction of which took over a quarter of a 

 century, 1817 to 1844. 



Standing at an altitude of 1,755 feet on the broad level plain between the two 

 Cordilleras, Santiago extends some miles along the left bank of the Rio Mapocho, 

 an affluent of the Maipo, whose waters are for most part of the year absorbed 

 by the irrigation canals. On the opposite side of the watercourse stretch the 

 spacious suburbs, connected by bridges with the more central quarters. The main 

 thoroughfare is formed by a splendid boulevard shaded with four rows of poplars, 

 embellished with statues and kiosks, and enlivened with running waters. Every 

 street and avenue terminates in a mountainous prospect, westwards the grey 

 or reddish heights of the coast range, eastwards the spurs of the cordillera with 

 the upper Mapocho valley, a charming glen leading up to the snowy peaks of the 

 Andes. 



In the central square are grouped the cathedral, the municipal buildings, the 

 post office and, under the port ales, or covered ways, the richest and most frequented 

 shops. The volcanic Santa Lucia hill, rising 230 feet above the east side of the 

 city, is beautifully laid out with gardens, exotic plants, marble fountains, kiosks, 

 cafés, theatre and other handsome structures. From its summit is commanded a 

 superb view of the metropolis, the cultivated plains and encircling mountains. 



As seat of government and centre of the administration, Santiago possesses 

 some public buildings not destitute of a certain architectural beauty. Here are 

 grouped together nearly all the high schools of the republic, the university with 

 its various faculties, the National Institute, the schools of agriculture, mines, 

 industrial arts, practical engineering, painting, sculpture, music and the military 

 academy. There are also an astronomic observatory, a public library with 70,000 

 volumes and 40,000 manuscripts, a museum of the fine arts, and a "Salon," where 

 the local artists exhibit their productions, as in the great European capitals. The 

 Natural History Museum comprises a complete collection of the South American 

 fauna, as well as a carefully classed herbarium of several thousand plants. Over 

 2,400 cultivated species have also been brought together in the Botanic Garden, 

 the Model Farm and the numerous parks in the city and its environs. 



South of the capital, Melipilla, in the Mapocho valley, exports its ponchos, 

 potteries and agricultural produce through the little port of San Antonio^ which 

 is connected by a short railway with the mouth of the Rio Maipo. Melipilla was 



