THE VOYAGE OF THE HASSLER 151 
and walk where the carriage could not go, but it was 
lovely with bits of wood and groups of trees dotted 
all over it as if they had been arranged by a landscape 
gardener to produce picturesque effects. It reminded 
me of park scenery in England and would need little 
training to make it as beautiful. This brings us to the 
shore where a large river (the Rio-Rio) pours into the 
sea; on one side of the beach the quiet waters of the 
river make a gentle ripple, on the other a furious 
ocean surf drives in on very broken masses of rock. 
At one end of the beach is a superb cliff pierced by a 
cave. Altogether the scenery is very wild and pictur- 
esque. Here in the river side of the bay we drew the 
seine and Agassiz got many valuable specimens. Af- 
terwards we went up to the fishermen’s tents on the 
bank. Certainly poverty is a great deal more pictur- 
esque in Southern countries than in Northern ones. 
Any one of these huts with their deep porches, on the 
walls of which are hanging the fishing nets, the oars, 
the saddle, perhaps, and working tools of all sorts, 
while a pussy cat sits on a cross beam and looks out 
through the thatch, and cocks and hens and dogs and 
children group about a handful of fire in the mud 
floors, would make a picture; I know it’s no less 
squalid and miserable than poverty in one of our Irish 
tenements, but it’s ever so much prettier. It attracts 
instead of repelling you. 
We returned to the ranch for dinner with Chileno 
country dishes, a casuela, a sort of half stew, half soup 
made of chicken, puchero, a dish which reminds me 
of Meg Merrilies’ famous stew in the gypsy cave, 
