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Chilian river otter, the “ huillin ” {Lutra huidobrio), it is easily
known by its dental characters as well as by its tail and feet.
The hind feet arc webbed as in the beaver. I dissected one
which we shot, and found the stomach full of green vegetable
matter, and in the abdominal cavity, which was a good deal
injured by the shot, were fragments of a large tapeworm. This
specimen weighed 10 lbs., and measured 2 ft. 10 in. from snout
to extremity of tail.
Some days subsequently I accompanied Captain Maclear on
a railway trip up the country, Mr. Lawrence, the superintendent
of the line, having, with the courtesy so characteriffic of English
residents in Chili, invited the captain and one other officer to
join him in a tour of inspection which he was about to make
along the Angol branch of the South Chilian railway. Wc
started from Concepcion at 9 a.m., on a small locomotive which
was set apart for the use of the superintendent. It was a lightly
built affair, partly “ housed in” and partly open, and was fitted
to accommodate two or three passengers besides the driver and
fireman, so that it afforded us an exceedingly pleasant method of
seeing something of the country. This swift little vehicle was
called the “ Quillapan,” in commemoration of a distinguished native
chief of that name. Cur driver was a most intelligent and well-
informed Englishman named Clark, who had lost his foot about
three years previously in a railway accident, at which I understood
that Lady Brassey, of the Sunbeam, had been present ; and he
spoke gratefully of the kind attention which she paid to him. His
wooden leg did not seem to be much impediment to his engine-
driving, for he rattled us along round curves and down inclines at
a speed which, while possessing all the charms of novelty, had also
in no small degree the excitement of danger. However, we soon
got used to this, as well as to the jumping and jolting of the light
little engine.
For the first ten miles after leaving Concepcion, our route lay
along the right or northerly bank of the Bio Bio river. Here
most of the railway cuttings were through a clayslate rock, which
alternated with bands of black shale, and occasionally exhibited
thin seams of coal. Further on, and throughout the rest of the
journey to Angol, the cuttings were through banks of sand exhibiting
horizontal stratification, and being apparently of fluviatile
origin. A run of two hours brought us to the junction station
of San Rosendo, from whence the northerly line to Chilian,
Talca, and Santiago, and the S.E. line to Angol diverge. Here
we breakfasted, and stretched our legs by a stroll. Immediately
on resuming our journey we crossed the Lara,— a tributary ot
the Bio Bio,— and then continued our course along the right
bank of the main river, until we had just passed the station ot
Santa Fé. Here the line made a short semicircular sweep, and
crossed the Bio Bio by a low wooden bridge of about two hundred
yards in length. Clark, the driver, told us that during freshets the
water rose about fifteen feet above this bridge, completely stopping
the traffic. Cn asking him why they did not build a strong
high level bridge, he replied that a rude wooden structure such
as the present one cost little, and when swept away could be
readily and cheaply replaced ; but that a bridge of durable style
would take too long to pay the cost of its own construction.
This explanation may not at first sight seem very lucid, but it
is worthy of consideration, for the principle which it involves is,
I fancy, applicable to many of the affairs of Chili.
We had now entered the great central valley of the country,
a broad plateau interposed between the coast range and the
Cordillera, and extending in one unbroken sheet of iertile land
from here to Santiago. Before us now, as far as the eye could
penetrate, lay a straight level track, so Mr. Clark turned the
steam full on, and the “Quillapan” responded to the tune of forty-
five miles an hour. When about a mile or two from a desolate
station called “ Roblería,” we were rapidly approaching a long
wooden bridge, when we saw a man appear on the track just
on our side of the bridge, and step leisurely from sleeper to