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.
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