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of 1835, when the city was reduced to rums. Pcnco, the old
Spanish capital of the province of Concepcion, was situated in
the eastern extremity of the Bay of Concepcion ; but when it
was destroyed by a tidal wave in 1730, the people moved inland
and established themselves near the site of the present city.
However, by the cataclysm of 175 I, the newly-founded city of
Concepcion shared the fate of Penco, but was soon rebuilt, as it
was again, in great part, after the earthquake of 1835.
We had intended to make only a short stay at Talcahuano,
but on the day preceding our arrival there, a case of smallpox
appeared among the crew, followed by a second and third, and
we were therefore obliged to remain in this harbour until our
patients should be sufficiently well to return on board.
There was a long, low, sandy island (Isla de los Reyes) lying
across the head of Talcahuano Bay, and inhabited only by a
couple of shepherds who were looking after a herd of cattle
and horses. There being no available hospital to which our
patients could be sent, we obtained leave from the Chilian authorities
to establish a temporary quarantine station on the island.
Accordingly, on the day of our arrival we set up tents on an
unfrequented and particularly airy part of the island, and having
supplied them with provisions and all the necessary appliances,
we installed our patients in their new quarters. They made
good recoveries. My medical duties required me to ^ make
frequent visits to this little establishment, and I found it convenient
to make it the centre of my afternoon rambles. On
the mainland immediately adjoining the island, I found a great
marshy plain of many miles in extent, and intersected in various
directions by deep muddy ditches which communicated with the
sea, and at high tide brought supplies of sea water to a chain of
broad, shallow lagoons, the home of multitudes of waterfowl.
Pintail ducks, widgeon, herons, curlew, flamingoes, turkey-buz-
zards, gulls, lapwings, and sandpipers found here a congenial
home. The shrill, harsh cry of the spur-winged lapwing (the
I
“ terotero” of the Pampas so graphically described by Darwin)
was for ever scaring the other peacefully-disposed birds, and at
the same time invoking maledictions from the sportsman. The
plumage of this bird is very handsome, and the bright crimson
colour of the iris and eyelid during life gave it a strange fascinating
appearance, which can hardly be realized from a stuffed
specimen.
When the first ebb of the tide left bare the mudbanks in the
lagoons, the gulls and curlews collected in vast numbers for
their diurnal meal. Of the gulls only three kinds were seen,
viz., L. Dominicanus, L. Glaucodes, and L. Maculipennis. The latter
were in various conditions of plumage ; some birds having a deep
black hood, aqd others with a head almost entirely white, while
between these two extremes, there was every gradation. The
turkey-buzzards derived a plentiful supply of food from the
bodies of fish stranded on the beach. For some reason or other
dogfish were constantly coming to grief in this way, bodies of
fish, two and three feet long, being met with sometimes, all along
the beach, at average distances of about one hundred yards
apart.
One day we made an excursion up the river Andalien, which
flows into Talcahuano Bay, near the village of Penco, and which
at high tide is navigable for boats to a distance of seven miles
from its mouth. Our main object was to see something of the
nutria a large rodent {Myopotamus coypu), which is common in
some of the rivers of southern Chili, and which the natives call
“ Coypo.” In a deep, narrow, ditch-like tributary of the Andalien,
we came across several of these animals, swimming and diving
about, some half-immersed clumps of bushes. A t first sight their
manner of swimming and diving would lead one to imagine that
they were otters, but on closer inspection the broad miuzzle with
its long bristly whiskers, and foxy-red hair, reveal their true character.
The “ coypo ” is distinguished from its northern ally, the
beaver, in having the scaly tail round instead of flat, and from the
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