e animal, exactly
resembling a horse in every particular, except that its hoofs are
cloven. It used only to be found in the mountains of Chili, and it is
one of the supporters of the national coat of arms.

_Saturday, October 28th_.--At 5 a.m. we were called, and soon
afterwards parting gifts of flowers began to arrive, and even I was
obliged to confess that four large clothes-baskets full of rosebuds
were more than I quite knew what to do with. At seven Mr. Long came to
know if he could help us in any way, and a little later Madame
Cousino's coachman appeared with the carriage, to take us to the
station.

We had a pleasant drive down the Alameda, the sun shining brilliantly
in a bright blue sky, and the distant mountains for the first time
being clearly visible. The station was crowded with vendors of
pottery, curious things in buffalo horn, sweetmeats, &c. The rolling
stock on this line is of English manufacture, and we were therefore
put into the too familiar, close, stuffy, first-class carriage, and
duly locked up for the journey down to Valparaiso. The line, running
as it does through mountain gorges for a great portion of the way,
must have been a difficult one to make.

Just now the whole country wears a golden tint from the bloom of the
espinosa, which seems to grow everywhere, and which is now in
perfection. The branches of this shrub are so completely covered with
little yellow balls of flowers, which come before the leaves, and
which have no separate stalk, but grow along the shiny, horny
branches, that they look as if they were made of gold. It is called
the 'burning bush' here, and its wood is said to be the hardest in the
country. The flowers are often plucked off and dried, in which state
they are most fragrant and are used for scenting linen and for keeping
away moths. The thorns, however, are a terrible nuisance to the
shepherds and owners of cattle, catching their clothes and tearing
them as they gallop swiftly across over the plains. If I bore you by
saying too much about the flowers, forgive me. I want to make you all
realise, if possible, what a lovely flowery land Chili is. The whole
air is quite perfumed with roses, principally large double pink roses,
something like the old-fashioned cabbage rose, though there are a good
many of the monthly kind and a few white and deep scarlet ones. They
formed hedgerows on either side of the road, and in many places
climbed thirty or forty feet up the trees