CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Voyage across the Atlantic—Barbadoes—Jamaica—Isthmus of Panama—Buenaventura, tropical forest—Guayaquil and the river Guayas—Payta—The rainless zone of Peru—Voyage to Callao[1]
CHAPTER II.
Arrival at Callao—Quarantine—The war between Chili and Peru—Aspect of Lima—General Lynch—Andean railway to Chicla—Valley of the Rimac—Puente Infernillo—Chicla—Mountain-sickness—Flora of the Temperate zone of the Andes—Excursion to the higher region—Climate of the Cordillera—Remarks on the Andean flora—Return to Lima—Visit to a sugar-plantation—Condition of Peru—Prospect of anarchy[56]
CHAPTER III.
Voyage from Callao to Valparaiso—Arica—Tocopilla—Scenery of the moon—Caldera—Aspect of North Chili—British Pacific squadron—Coquimbo—Arrival at Valparaiso—Climate and vegetation of Central Chili—Railway journey to Santiago—Aspect of the city—Grand position of Santiago—Dr. Philippi—Excursion to Cerro St. Cristobal—Don B. Vicuña Mackenna—Remarkable trees—Excursion to the baths of Cauquenes—The first rains—Captive condors—Return to Santiago—Glorious sunset[118]
CHAPTER IV.
Baths of Apoquinto—Slopes of the Cordillera—Excursion to Santa Rosa de los Andes and the valley of Aconcagua—Return to Valparaiso—Voyage in the German steamer Rhamses—Visit to Lota—Parque of Lota—Coast of Southern Chili—Gulf of Peñas—Hale Cove—Messier’s Channel—Beautiful scenery—The English narrows—Eden harbour—Winter vegetation—Eyre Sound—Floating ice—Sarmiento Channel—Puerto Bueno—Smyth’s Channel—Entrance to the Straits of Magellan—Glorious morning—Borya Bay—Mount Sarmiento[188]
CHAPTER V.
Arrival at Sandy Point—Difficulties as to lodging—Story of the mutiny—Patagonian ladies—Agreeable society in the Straits of Magellan—Winter aspect of the flora—Patagonians and Fuegians—Habits of the South American ostrich—Waiting for the steamer—Departure—Climate of the Straits and of the southern hemisphere—Voyage to Monte Video—Saturnalia of children—City of Monte Video—Signor Bartolomeo Bossi; his explorations—Neighbourhood of the city—Uruguayan politics—River steamer—Excursion to Paisandu—Voyage on the Uruguay—Use of the telephone—Excursion to the camp—Aspect of the flora—Arrival at Buenos Ayres—Industrial Exhibition—Argentine forests—The cathedral of Buenos Ayres—Excursion to La Boca—Argentaria as a field for emigration[248]
CHAPTER VI.
Voyage from Buenos Ayres to Santos—Tropical vegetation in Brazil—Visit to San Paulo—Journey from San Paulo to Rio Janeiro—Valley of the Parahyba do Sul—Ancient mountains of Brazil—Rio Janeiro—Visit to Petropolis—Falls of Itamariti—Struggle for existence in a tropical forest—The hermit of Petropolis—Morning view over the Bay of Rio—A gorgeous flowering shrub—Visit to Tijuca—Yellow fever in Brazil—A giant of the forest—Voyage to Bahia and Pernambuco—Equatorial rains—Fernando Noronha—St. Vincent in the Cape Verde Islands—Trade winds of the North Atlantic—Lisbon—Return to England[303]
Appendix A.—On the fall of temperature in ascending to heights above the sea-level[369]
Appendix B.—Remarks on Mr. Croll’s theory of secular changes of the earth’s climate[393]

NOTES OF A NATURALIST
IN SOUTH AMERICA.

CHAPTER I.

Voyage across the Atlantic—Barbadoes—Jamaica—Isthmus of Panama—Buenaventura, tropical forest—Guayaquil and the river Guayas—Payta—The rainless zone of Peru—Voyage to Callao.

A voyage across the Atlantic in a large ocean steamer is now as familiar and as little troublesome as the journey from London to Paris. It rarely offers any incident worth recounting, and yet, especially as a first experience, it supplies an abundant variety of sources of curiosity and interest. It is easy for a man to sit down at home and within the walls of his own study to find the requisite materials for investigating the still unsolved problems presented by the physics and meteorology of the ocean, or the evidence favourable or hostile to the important modern doctrine of the permanence of the great ocean valleys; but in point of fact very few men who stay at home do occupy themselves with these questions, and it is no slight privilege to feel drawn towards them by the hourly suggestions received during a sea-voyage. Nor is it possible to make light of the simpler pleasures caused by the satisfaction of mere curiosity, when that is linked by association with the pictures on which the fancy has worked from one’s earliest childhood onward. The starting of a covey of flying-fish, the fringe of cocos palms rising against the horizon, the Southern Cross and the Magellanic clouds, the reversed apparent motion of the sun from right to left—none of them very marvellous as mere observed facts—are so many keys that unlock the closed-up recesses, the blue chambers of the memory, which the youthful imagination had peopled with shapes of beauty and wonder and mystery.

Some thrill of delightful anticipation was, I presume, felt by many of the passengers who went on board the royal mail steamer Don in Southampton Water on the 17th of March, 1882. Amid the usual waving of handkerchiefs from the friends who remained behind on board the tender, we glided seaward, and by four p.m. were going at half speed abreast of the Isle of Wight. The good ship had suffered severely during the preceding winter on her homeward passage from the West Indies, when the heavy seas which swept her upper deck had carried away the covering of her engine-room, stove in the chief officer’s cabin, and severely injured her commander, Captain Woolward. On this occasion our voyage was easy and prosperous, and nothing occurred to test severely the careful seamanship of Captain Gillies, who had taken the temporary command.