er, a
giant in itself, until their bases are laved by the Pacific. It is a
grand _coup d'oeil_ at rise or set of sun; but there is a sameness
about masses of reddish rocks, ravines and mountains of the foreground,
and one is apt to doubt the immense height of those beyond, from the
gradual rise around. Moreover, there is nothing striking or diversified,
as with their tall brothers in Switzerland or Asia; snowy tops without
glaciers; frightful chasms, and sweeping valleys, without torrents or
verdure; all this is nature's design, but the decorations have been
forgotten, and bare walls of mount and deep is all that appears
finished.

Little can be said commendatory of Valparaiso; and truly I think the
most rabid of limners would meet with difficulty in getting an outside
view from any point; for, owing to formation of the land, furrowed into
scores of ravines by the rush and wash of creation, with the town
running oddly enough along the ridges, or down in the gullies, it
becomes a matter of optical skill, for a single pair of eyes to compass
more than a small portion at a glance.

The houses are mean; streets narrow and nasty; the former are built of
adobies--unbaked bricks of great thickness--or lathed, plastered and
stuccoed; the latter paved with small pebbles no bigger than pigeons'
eggs, and only those running with the shores of the bay, are at all
walkable. A little way back in the _quebradas_, or broken ground, is
like stepping over angular Flemish roofs, and with a long leg and short
one, to preserve an equipoise, you may walk along these inclined planes
without any serious personal danger, save what consists in liquids
thrown on your head, and the torture endured by your corns.

There is not a single public edifice in Valparaiso worthy of even
passing admiration. The custom house is most conspicuous, facing the
port; the theatre fronts one of two small squares, and but a few meanly
built churches are to be found, packed away, out of sight, under the
steep hills back of the city. Improvements, however were planned, and
rapidly progressing. The port for many years had been steadily rising in
wealth and population, under the sure incentives of a large foreign
trade, and the enterprise of foreign residents; and all that appears
necessary to make the city much in advance of other commercial rivals
in the Pacific, is that Dame Nature should play excavating Betty on the
next earthquake, and remove a few of the obtrus