On 27th July I embarked on board the P. and O. Company's steamer Behar, Captain Black, en route to Gibraltar, which I reached after a passage of 4 1⁄2 days, and, what is still more curious, by a singular coincidence, at the very same moment when the Novara, with every stitch of canvas set, was proudly careering through the famous Straits!! As the noble frigate shot past our steamer, Captain Black saluted, and was so thoughtfully kind as to signal the Novara that I was among his passengers. Very soon after, both ships anchored in the roads of Gibraltar. In the course of my overland journey from Valparaiso to Gibraltar, I had travelled 8832 nautical miles, and had been but 29 days actually travelling.
I now felt pervaded by a sentiment of profoundest gratitude to a benevolent fate, which had led me safely and pleasantly through so many dangers till I rejoined that Expedition with which not alone the best and happiest remembrances of my life are henceforth associated, but which opened to me the unspeakably gratifying prospect of being better able to contribute, by extended knowledge and experience, to the advancement of science in my native land!
FOOTNOTES:
[120] The fares, first class (including provisions and bedding, but without wine), are as follows:
| Miles | Dols. | £ | s. | d. | ||
| Valparaiso to Callao de Lima | 1467 | 95 | or | 19 | 19 | 0 |
| Callao to Panama | 1594 | 110 | " | 23 | 2 | 0 |
| Aspinwall (E. coast of Isthmus of Panama) to St. Thomas, and thence to Southampton | 4572 | 360 | " | 75 | 12 | 0 |
| Total, exclusive of 49 miles of rail from Colon to Panama | 7633 | 565 | " | 118 | 13 | 0 |
[121] Hitherto, the coal procured at Lota in the south of Chile has been neglected, in consequence of the freight being so heavy that it is cheaper to import coals from England and North America.
[122] See "On the Source and Supply of Cubic Saltpetre, or Nitrate of Soda, and its use in small quantities as a Restorative to Corn-crops, by Philip Pusey." London, W. Clowes and Sons, 1853.
[123] The proportion as found along the coast is 93 to 95 per cent. of saltpetre, to 7 to 5 per cent. of earth.
[124] The export, however, is constantly increasing. In 1858 it amounted to 61,000 tons, in 1859 to 78,000, of which 22,500 tons went to England, 15,200 to France, and the remainder to Germany.
[125] From Arica there are bridle-paths to Potosi, Oruru, Cochabamba, La Paz, Chuquisaca, and Calamaca, probably the highest inhabited point of the earth's surface, where a population of 800 souls live at an elevation of 13,800 feet above the level of the sea.