]
_Saturday, October 21st_.--Having wished good-bye to Mr. Mackay, and
taken our seats in the train for Linares, we were now fairly launched
on our own resources in a strange country, I being the only one of the
party who could speak even a little Spanish. At San Romde we stopped
half an hour to allow the train from Chilian to pass. Most of the
passengers took the opportunity of breakfasting, but as we were not
hungry we occupied the time in having a chat with the engine-driver, a
very intelligent Canadian. He told us that, as it happened, we might
have gone to Angol to-day after all, as a special car and engine were
going there to take a doctor to see a patient, returning early
to-morrow morning.
The railroad runs alongside the Bio-Bio all the way to San Romde. On
either bank are low wooded hills, on whose sides vines are cultivated
in considerable quantities. The wild flowers grow luxuriantly
everywhere: calceolarias, especially, in huge bushes of golden bloom,
two or three feet high. At San Romde we left the river, and travelled
through a pretty and well-cultivated country to Chilian, which derives
its name from an Indian word, signifying 'saddle of the sun,' and is
so called from the fact that the sun shines upon it through a
saddle-shaped pass in the chain of the Andes.
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