One morning we left Santiago and eleven hours later found ourselves in the 253-miles-distant Ñuble metropolis. Owing to an excess of traffic the train was two hours late. From the train in the afternoon we saw the irregular peak of the volcano Yeguas, 11,885 feet high, in the Linares Andes on the eastern horizon; soon afterwards appeared in the hazy background the volcano Chillán, 9438 feet high, whose whole conical contour is perpetually covered with snow. Seen at the setting of the autumn sun the central valley of Chile presents a view so pastorally charming that its replica is difficult to be conjured by the imagination. Broad fields of melons, intermingled with vineyards and separated from each other by rows of Lombardy poplars and blackberry hedges, decked the valley floor. On the western horizon rises a chain of hills, which occasionally has an outcrop in the form of an isolated mountain. The sun, which had just sunk behind them, made the sky saffron, as its rays, invisible behind the western peaks, played upon the snowy summits of the Andes to the east.
The crowd on the platform at the covered train shed of the Chillán station is the most animated to be found at any railroad station in Chile with the possible exception of that at Llai-Llai. Landscape gardeners have endeavored to enhance the depot approach by planting cedar trees in square holes in the middle of the sidewalk. These trees have attained the growth of three feet. Leaving the depot, Gumprecht was walking on my left. Presently he uttered an oath and upon my looking around I was just in time to see his carcass take a plunge and land on his belly in front of the astonished crowd. When he picked himself up, he said:
"I felt something rise between my legs and I jumped, but it was this verdammter tree."
Plaza O'Higgins, Chillán
Chillán is the capital of the Province of Ñuble, and has a population of 39,113, being the seventh city of Chile. Next to Santiago and Talca it is the largest city in the central valley. It would be larger than Talca if it took in its suburb, Chillán Viejo. But although a paucity of manufacturing is done, it owes its existence as a market town to its being the center of an agricultural district to which it is the distributing point. There are but few foreigners, unlike the towns farther south, so that the city is essentially Chilean and here native life and customs can be seen and studied at their best. There are several specialties of home-made manufacture that owe their origin to Chillán, preëminent among which are untanned leather accoutrements and caparisons for the equine and muline genera, such as bridles, whips, and spur leathers. Chillán pottery is famous throughout the republic. It is black, thin, and brittle, and is invariably adorned with scroll work of pink, lemon, or white. Last in importance is the charcoal fan, woven by natives from corn husks. The brewery of Julius Jenson is not large enough to play a rôle in the financial equilibrium of the place for its proprietor brews but an ordinary beer for local trade.
Calle Roble, Chillán, Looking East from Calle Arauco