KATITE WOSDEBS. 
197 
climates, a variety quite white. It was a female of the size 
°f the roebuck of Europe, and of a very elegant shape. 
White varieties are found in the New Continent even among 
the tigers. Azara saw a jaguar, the skin of which was wholly 
white, with merely the shadow, as it might be termed, of a 
few circular spots. 
Of all the productions on the coasts of Araya, that which 
the people consider as the most extraordinary, or we may 
say the most marvellous, is ‘ the stone of the ‘eyes,’ ( piedra 
de los ojos.) This calcareous substance is a frequent subject of 
conversation : being, according to the natural philosophy of 
the natives, both a stone and an animal. It is found in the 
sand, where it is motionless ; but if placed on a polished 
surface, for instance on a pewter or earthern plate, it moves 
when excited by lemon juice. If placed in the eye, the sup- 
posed animal turns on itself, and expels every other foreign 
substance that has been accidentally introduced. At the 
new salt-works, and at the village of Maniquarez, these stones 
of the eyes* were offered to us by hundreds, and the natives 
were anxious to show us the experiment of the lemon juice. 
They even wished to put sand into our eyes, in order that we 
might ourselves try the efficacy of the remedy. ' It was easy 
to see that the stones are thin and porous opercula, which 
have formed part of small univalve shells. Their diameter 
varies from one to four lines. One of their two surfaces is 
plane, and the other convex. These calcareous opercula 
effervesce with lemon juice, and put themselves in motion in 
proportion as the carbonic acid is disengaged. By the effect 
of a similar reaction, loaves placed in an oven move some- 
times on a horizontal plane ; a phenomenon that has given 
occasion, in Em-ope, to the popular prejudice of enchanted 
ovens. The picdras de los ojos, introduced into the eye, act 
like the small pearls, and different round grains employed by 
the American savages to increase the flowing of tears. * These 
explanations were little to the taste of the inhabitants of 
Araya. . Nature has the appearance of greatness to man in 
proportion as she is veiled in mystery; and the ignorant are 
prone to put faith in everything that borders on tho 
marvellous. 
* They arc found in the greatest abundance near the battery at the 
point of Cape Araya. 
