chino is a small island, distant only a few miles from San
Carlos. It is hilly, and thickly crowned with brush-wood. It has only
one landing-place, and that is rather insecure for boats. The water of
the bay is remarkably clear and good; only round the little island of
Cochino, and along the harbor, it is covered with an immense quantity of
sea-moss, which often renders the landing difficult. It frequently
happens that commanders of ships, wishing to go on board to make sail
during the night, get out of the right course, and instead of going to
the ship, steer to Cochino and get into the moss, where their boats
stick fast, till returning daylight enables them to work their way out.

The poor inhabitants boil this sea-moss and eat it. It is very salt
and slimy, and is difficult of digestion. Among the people of Chiloe,
this sea-moss occupies an important place in surgery. When a leg or an
arm is broken, after bringing the bone into its proper position, a
broad layer of the moss is bound round the fractured limb. In drying,
the slime causes it to adhere to the skin, and thus it forms a fast
bandage, which cannot be ruffled or shifted. After the lapse of a few
weeks, when the bones have become firmly united, the bandage is
loosened by being bathed with tepid water, and it is then easily
removed. The Indians of Chiloe were acquainted, long before the French
surgeons, with the use of the paste bandage.

The town of San Carlos is dirty; the streets unpaved, narrow, and
crooked. The houses, with few exceptions, are wretched wooden huts, for
the most part without windows; but there is a board divided in the
middle horizontally, the upper part of which being open, it serves for a
window, and when both parts are open, it forms a door. The flooring
usually consists merely of hard-trodden clay, covered with straw
matting. The furniture, like the apartments, is rude and inconvenient.
These remarks of course apply to the habitations of the very poor class
of people. The richer families live in more comfortable style. Of the
public buildings, the custom-house and the governor's residence are the
most considerable, but both make a very indifferent appearance. In front
of the governor's house, which occupies a tolerably large space of
ground, in the upper part of the town, a sentinel is constantly
stationed. This sentinel parades to and fro, without shoes or stockings,
and not unfrequently without a coat, his arms being covered only by