350 NORTHERN CHILE. [chap. xvi. 



have brightened fields and pretty gardens. The next day we 

 reached the valley of Copiapo. I was heartily glad of it ; for 

 the whole journey was a continued source of anxiety ; it was 

 most disagreeable to hear, whilst eating our own suppers, our 

 horses gnawing the posts to which they were tied, and to have no 

 means of relieving their hunger. To all appearance, however, 

 the animals were quite fresh ; and no one could have told that 

 they had eaten nothing for the last fifty-five hours. 



I had a letter of introduction to Mr. Bingley, who received 

 me very kindly at the Hacienda of Potrero Seco. This estate is 

 between twenty and thirty miles long, but very narrow, being 

 generally only two fields wide, one on each side the river. In 

 some parts the estate is of no width, that is to say, the land can- 

 not be irrigated, and therefore is valueless, like the surrounding 

 rocky desert. The small quantity of cultivated land in the whole 

 line of valley, does not so much depend on inequalities of level, 

 and consequent unfitness for irrigation, as on the small supply of 

 water. The river this year was remarkably full : here, high up 

 the valley, it reached to the horse's belly, and was about fifteen 

 yards wide, and rapid ; lower down it becomes smaller and 

 smaller, and is generally quite lost, as happened during one 

 period of thirty years, so that not a drop entered the sea. The 

 inhabitants watch a storm over the Cordillera with great interest ; 

 as one good fall of snow provides them with water for the ensu- 

 ing year. This is of infinitely more consequence than rain in 

 the lower country. Rain, as often as it falls, which is about 

 once in every two or three years, is a great advantage, because 

 the cattle and mules can for some time afterwards find a little 

 pasture on the mountains. But without snow on the Andes, 

 desolation extends throughout the valley. It is on record that 

 three times nearly all the inhabitants have been obliged to 

 emigrate to the south. This year there was plenty of water, and 

 every man irrigated his ground as much as he chose ; but it has 

 frequently been necessary to post soldiers at the sluices, to see 

 that each estate took only its proper allowance during so many 

 hours in the week. The valley is said to contain 12,000 souls, 

 but its produce is sufficient only for three months in the year ; 

 the rest of the supply being drawn from Valparaiso and the south. 

 Before the discovery of the famous silver-mines of Chanuncillo, 



