, and then threw down long
brambles laden with bloom, almost producing the effect of a wall of
pink. There were also plenty of wild flowers of other sorts, such as
scarlet and white lilies, larkspurs, eschscholtzias, evening
primroses, and many others whose names I do not know.

At Llaillai we stopped for breakfast, procured at a small restaurant
at the station. While waiting for the train for Santiago to come in,
we had plenty of time to observe the half-Indian girls selling fruit,
flowers, cakes, &c., and jabbering away in a sort of _patois_ Spanish,
in recommendation of their wares. Some of them were really pretty,
and all were picturesquely dressed in bright-coloured stuffs, their
hair neatly done up and decorated with flowers, their faces clean and
smiling. At 11.15 a.m. we reached Quillota, where the train was
literally besieged by men, women, and children, offering bouquets for
sale--two or three of which were thrust in at every carriage
window--and baskets of strawberries, cherimoyas, nisperos, melons,
oranges, sugar-cane, plantain, bananas, asparagus, green peas, French
beans, eggs, chickens, and even fish--nice little pejereyes, fresh
from the stream close by. It must evidently be the custom of the
Chilenos to visit by rail these fertile districts, for the purpose of
doing their marketing; for the occupants of the train soon absorbed
the entire stock of the vendors, who were left with empty baskets.

I never saw such a country as this is for eggs and chickens. A hen
seems never to have a smaller brood than ten, and I have often counted
from seventeen to twenty-one chickens with the mother, and, more than
once, as many as twenty-four. However well you may have breakfasted or
dined, the waiters always come at the end of the meal to ask, not
_whether_ you will have any eggs, but _how_ you will have them--fried,
boiled, poached, or in some sort of omelette. If you refuse
altogether, the chances are that two very lightly boiled eggs will be
placed by your side, with the suggestion that you should beat them up
and drink them. The inhabitants of the country always seem to finish
their meals with eggs in some form or another.

The celebrated 'Bell of Quillota,' a mountain which derives its name
from its peculiar shape, and which serves as a good landmark in
entering the harbour of Valparaiso, is well seen from the railway, a
little below Quillota Station. We stopped again at Limache, a little
village, situated in t