ch alarmed, and I stood on the car platform ready to jump, though
the jump would necessarily have been into the seething water.

November 27th.--Colon once more! Went on to Panama. The Chagres River
was in the highest state of flood known in twenty years.

November 30th.--Sailed on steamship _Chile_ with about thirty
passengers, all Spanish Americans, bound for Equador, Peru or Chile.

December 3rd.--Reached the Equator, and I donned warmer clothes. We saw
whales, sharks, porpoises, rays and thrashers. Entered the Guayaquil
River. Here was where Pizarro first landed and obtained a footing. The
steamer anchored in quarantine a mile below the city. Yellow fever was
raging as usual, and the Quito railroad was blocked by the
revolutionists, so my projected visit again for the second time fell
through. Guayaquil has the highest permanent death-rate of all cities.
The state produces much cocoa and mangrove wood. The town is the centre
of the Panama hat trade, which hats are made of the sheaths of the
unexpanded leaves of the jaraca palm, or of the long sheaths protecting
the flower-cone of the hat palm (_taquilla_); and they can only be made
in a favourable damp atmosphere. Here on the mangrove roots and
submerged branches enormous quantities of oysters may be found. Oysters
on trees at last! Belonging to Equador State are the Galapagos Islands,
500 miles westward. Of course we did not visit them, but they are
remarkable for their giant tortoises and their wild cattle, donkeys and
dogs. It is said that these dogs do not bark, having forgotten how to;
but they develop the power after contact with domestic ones. The
Guayaquil River swarms with alligators, but luckily the alligator never
attacks man.

We sailed south down the coast, calling at many ports. From Guayaquil
south to Valparaiso, a distance of 2000 miles, we enjoyed bright, clear
weather, a pleasant, sometimes an even too low temperature, and
peaceful seas, a condition which the captain assured me was constant,
the low temperature being due to the South Polar or Humboldt current.
The absolute barren condition of this whole coast is also indirectly due
to this current, the temperature of the sea being so much below that of
the land that evaporation and condensation do not take place. After
passing some guano islands on December 9th we landed at Callao, the port
of Lima. Went on to Lima, a city founded by Pizarro, and once a very
gay, luxurious and licentious capital