336 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



tive Chilian plough, which hardly differs from that in use 

 in Ahyssinia at the present time. 



On the 1st of April it rained heavily in the morning, but 

 cleared up before long, so that early in the forenoon Dr. 

 Campbell and I left the ship in the steam-cutter to view the 

 town of Ancud, which we had not yet visited. On land- 

 ing, our impressions of it were far from favourable, the 

 aspect of things in general being dirty, squalid, and dismal in 

 the extreme. The town contains about 5000 inhabitants, the 

 native portion of which are for the most part stunted and 

 miserable -looking, evidently possessing a considerable amount 

 of Indian blood in their veins, and bearing no small resemblance 

 to the aborigines of the Channels, although, of course, they 

 are much more civilised than those people. They have 

 very dark hair and complexions, and wear the Chilian national 

 costume of a poncho over a shirt and trousers generally much 

 the worse for the wear. Nearly all the houses are wooden, 

 with steep roofs, often thatched, and displaying a deeply con- 

 cave curve and projecting eaves ; and as Ancud boasts a 

 bishop, it also is endowed with a wooden cathedral. The 

 streets are steep and very crooked, and paved with round stones 

 most unpleasant to walk on, especially with thin boots. We 

 called on an old Irish doctor who had spent twenty-one years 

 in the settlement, and spent some time in talk with him, 

 receiving a large amount of information on a variety of sub- 

 jects, including frightful accounts of the rapacity and pro- 

 fligacy of the priesthood. After a visit to the club, of which 

 we had been constituted honorary members, we set out on a 

 walk into the country behind the town, following the meander- 

 ings of a winding road running between high green banks, on 

 which Bubus geoides was flowering profusely, along with a 

 little yellow Oxalis, Potentilla anseriTia, etc. On the roof- 



