Scene at the Station at Pinto
The Province of Ñuble, of which Chillán is the capital, has an area of 3407 square miles and a population of 166,245, being the fifth in Chile as to the number of its inhabitants. Its eastern part is mountainous and very sparsely settled, the great bulk of its population living in the highly cultivated central valley. Its level lands are a fine rich country given up to the growing of cereals, principally wheat, and to all the vegetables known to the temperate zone. There are also many vineyards.
The Baths of Chillán, as those hot springs are known, are fifty-seven miles east of the city Chillán at the headwaters of Renegado Creek on the slopes of the volcano Chillán, 5850 feet above sea level. One leaves Chillán at 5.30 A.M. and rides for two hours on a light railway which runs in a sort of a semicircle eastward to the station of Pinto, a distance of but twenty-two miles. At Coihueco, six miles before reaching Pinto, the farmers are building a mutual railway which will be a branch of the narrow gauge, the government furnishing the rails. This is being done so that the farmers may get their crops into Chillán. Pinto is a large village lying about a league south of the railroad station of the same name across the Chillán River.
Post Station at La Dehesa
