XVI HYDROPHOBIA 377 



extraordinarily numerous. I measured one which was fifteen 

 feet in circumference : how surprising it is that every atom of 

 the woody matter in this great cylinder should have been 

 removed, and replaced by silex so perfectly that each vessel 

 and pore is preserved ! These trees flourished at about the 

 period of our lower chalk ; they all belonged to the fir-tribe. 

 It was amusing to hear the inhabitants discussing the nature 

 of the fossil shells which I collected, almost in the same terms 

 as were used a century ago in Europe, — namely, whether or 

 not they had been thus " born by nature." My geological 

 examination of the country generally created a good deal of 

 surprise amongst the Chilenos : it was long before they could 

 be convinced that I was not hunting for mines. This was 

 sometimes troublesome : I found the most ready way of 

 explaining my employment was to ask them how it was that 

 they themselves were not curious concerning earthquakes and 

 volcanoes ? — why some springs were hot and others cold ? — 

 why there were mountains in Chile, and not a hill in La Plata? 

 These bare questions at once satisfied and silenced the greater 

 number ; some, however (like a few in England who are a 

 century behindhand), thought that all such inquiries were use- 

 less and impious ; and that it was quite sufficient that God 

 had thus made the mountains. 



An order had recently been issued that all stray dogs 

 should be killed, and we saw many lying dead on the road. 

 A great number had lately gone mad, and several men had 

 been bitten and had died in consequence. On several occasions 

 hydrophobia has prevailed in this valley. It is remarkable 

 thus to find so strange and dreadful a disease appearing time 

 after time in the same isolated spot. It has been remarked 

 that certain villages in England are in like manner much more 

 subject to this visitation than others. Dr. Unanue states that 

 hydrophobia was first known in South America in 1803 : this 

 statement is corroborated by Azara and Ulloa having never 

 heard of it in their time. Dr. Unanue says that it broke out 

 in Central America, and slowly travelled southward. It 

 reached Arequipa in 1 807 ; and it is said that some men 

 there, who had not been bitten, were affected, as were some 

 negroes who had eaten a bullock which had died of hydro- 

 phobia. At lea forty -two people thus miserably perished. 



