THE STRAIT OF MAGELLAN. 47 



exception of the marble steps in front of the entrance, it had 

 little but size to recommend it. The exterior of the dome is 

 covered throughout the greater part of its extent with blue 

 glazed tiles, causing it to appear as if constructed of china ; 

 and stucco largely prevails in the interior. The architecture 

 is altogether of a very inferior description, the painted win- 

 dows are very gaudy, and, like nearly all the South American 

 churches which I subsequently visited, there is a profusion 

 of tawdry gilt and tinsel images of our Saviour, the Virgin, 

 John the Baptist, etc. 



On the 24th, a day of brilliant sunshine and great heat 

 (the thermometer +87 in the shade), in the morning two of the 

 officers with myself, landed after breakfast, and set out on a 

 walk into the country. It took us long to get fairly beyond 

 the town, which straggles out for a very considerable dis- 

 tance, and after that we pursued our way for some miles along 

 a broad dusty road, flanked on either side with gardens, 

 hedged with aloe (Agave) and cactus plants, and guarded in 

 general by large and fierce dogs, on the watch to repel all in- 

 truders. Many of the Agaves were in bloom, and their 

 gigantic flower-stems, from twelve to twenty feet high, with 

 their symmetrically-arranged horizontal branches, covered 

 with greenish-yellow flowers, communicated a most peculiar 

 character to the landscape. The young flower-stem, before 

 the branches manifest themselves, is a Brobdignagian repre- 

 sentation of an asparagus-shoot as it comes to table. Split 

 lengthways into slices, the central part of it is employed for 

 razor-strops and a variety of other purposes. In the absence 

 of cork, it is a useful substance for lining entomological boxes, 

 its soft pith-like nature readily admitting of penetration by 

 a pin's point. On the great fleshy leaves, varying in length 

 from three to six feet, a species of Relix, as plentiful as our 



