1835.] 



DESERT COUNTRY. 347 



near the Andes than in the lower country. The tigs and grapes 

 of this district are famous for their excellence, and are cultivated 

 to a great extent. This valley is, perhaps, the most productive 

 one north of Quillota : I believe it contains, including Co- 

 quimbo, 25,000 inhabitants. The next day I returned to the 

 Hacienda, and thence, together with Don Jose, to Coquimbo. 



June 2nd. We set out for the valley of Guasco, following the 

 coast -road, which was considered rather less desert than the other. 

 Our first day's ride was to a solitary house, called Yerba Buena, 

 where there was pasture for our horses. The shower mentioned 

 as having fallen a fortnight ago, only reached about halfway to 

 Guasco ; we had, therefore, in the first part of our journey a 

 most faint tinge of green, which soon faded quite away. Even 

 where brightest, it was scarcely sufficient to remind one of the 

 fresh turf and budding flowers of the spring of other countries. 

 While travelling through these deserts one feels like a prisoner 

 shut up in a gloomy court, who longs to see something green 

 and to smell a moist atmosphere. 



June 3rd. Yerba Buena to Carizal. During the first part of 

 the day we crossed a mountainous rocky desert, and afterwards 

 a long deep sandy plain, strewed with broken sea-shells. There 

 was very little water, and that little saline : the whole country, 

 from the coast to the Cordillera, is an uninhabited desert. I 

 saw traces only of one living animal in abundance, namely, the 

 shells of a Bulimus, which were collected together in extraordi- 

 nary numbers on the driest spots. In the spring one humble little 

 plant sends out a few leaves, and on these the snails feed. As 

 they are seen only very early in the morning, when the ground is 

 slightly damp with dew, the Guasos believe that they are bred 

 from it. I have observed in other places that extremely dry and 

 sterile districts, where the soil is calcareous, are extraordinarily 

 favourable to land-shells. At Carizal there were a few cottages, 

 some brackish water, and a trace of cultivation : but it was with 

 difficulty that we purchased a little corn and straw for our 



horses. 



4th. Carizal to Sauce. We continued to ride over desert 

 plains, tenanted by large herds of guanaco. We crossed also 

 the valley of Chaiieral ; which, although the most fertile one 

 between Guasco and Coquimbo, is very narrow, and produces so 



