j 8 35.] RAIN AND EARTHQUAKES. 351 



Copiapo was in a rapid state of decay; but now it is in a very 

 thriving' condition ; and the town, which was completely over- 

 thrown by an earthquake, has been rebuilt. 



The valley of Copiapo, forming a mere ribbon of green in a 

 desert, runs in a very southerly direction ; so that it is of consi- 

 derable length to its source in the Cordillera. The valleys of Guas- 

 co and Copiapo may both be considered as long narrow islands, 

 separated from the rest of Chile by deserts of rock instead of by 

 salt water. Northward of these, there is one other very miserable 

 valley, called Paposo, which contains about two hundred souls ; 

 and then there extends the real desert of Atacama a barrier 

 far worse than the most turbulent ocean. After staying a few 

 days at Potrero Seco, I proceeded up the valley to the house of 

 Don Benito .Cruz, to whom I had a letter of introduction. I 

 found him most hospitable ; indeed it is impossible to bear too 

 strong testimony to the kindness, with which travellers are re- 

 ceived in almost every part of South America. The next day I 

 hired some mules to take me by the ravine of Jolquera into the 

 central Cordillera. On the second night the weather seemed to 

 foretel a storm of snow or rain, and whilst lying in our beds we 

 felt a trifling shock of an earthquake. 



The connexion between earthquakes and the weather has been 

 often disputed : it appears to me to be a point of great interest, 

 which is little understood. Humboldt has remarked in one part 

 of the Personal Narrative,* that it would be difficult for any 

 person who had long resided in New Andalusia, or in Lower 

 Peru, to deny that there exists some connexion between these 

 phenomena : in another part, however, he seems to think the 

 connexion fanciful. At Guayaquil, it is said that a heavy shower 

 in the dry season is invariably followed by an earthquake. In 

 Northern Chile, from the extreme infrequency of rain, or even 

 of weather foreboding rain, the probability of accidental coin- 

 cidences becomes very small ; yet the inhabitants are here most 

 firmly convinced of some connexion between the state of the 



* Vol. iv. p. 11, and vol. ii. p. 217. For the remarks on Guayaquil see 

 Silliman's Journ. vol. xxiv. p. 384. For those on Tacna by Mr. Hamilton, 

 see Trans, of British Association, 1840. For those on Coseguina see Mr. 

 Caklcleugh in Phil. Trans., 1835. In the former edition, I collected several 

 references on the coincidences between sudden falls in the barometer and 

 earthquakes ; and between earthquakes and meteors. 



