"70 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



river ; but it remains to be proved whether it occurs in suffi- 

 cient quantity to pay extensive working. Timber there 

 is in plenty ; but, as gigantic forests exist in South Chili, 

 the mother country can be but little benefited by it. Time, 

 however, will alone show whether this opinion is correct ; 

 and I need hardly say I should be very glad to find it dis- 

 proved by the steadily-increasing prosperity of the colony, 

 which, besides owing many improvements to the able man- 

 agement of the present governor, Senor Viel, has, within the 

 last year or two, been brought into more immediate contact 

 with the civilised world by the passage of the Pacific Steam 

 Navigation Company's vessels through the Strait, on their 

 way to and from Valparaiso. A curious instance of the 

 changes that may occur within a very short period of years is 

 furnished by the establishment of this new line of steamers ; 

 for at the commencement of our survey there was no regular 

 traffic through the Strait, so that it was quite an event to 

 encounter a vessel, while probably before these words are in 

 type there will be a fortnightly service in each direction. 



Sandy Point, the general appearance of which may be 

 gathered from the accompanying sketch of one end of it, as 

 seen in winter, with snow on the ground, consists of a num- 

 ber of wooden dwellings, grouped so as to form one long 

 street, running nearly parallel with the beach, but situated on 

 a low ridge, at about five minutes' walk from it, with a few 

 shorter ones directed at right angles to it, and near one end a 

 considerable square space of grass — the future plaza — at one 

 side of which a large wooden house, intended for a school, 

 was erected not long after our first visit. The three principal 

 buildings are the church, the governor's house, and nearly 

 opposite this the Port, an edifice much like a child's house of 

 cards, and which, from the associations suggested by it with the 



