124 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



able places an iron church, in debased sham-Gothic 

 style, has been procured from the United States, and 

 has been set up in a central position, with the outline 

 of a plaza in front of it, and several drinking-shops 

 clustered near. 



The aspect of the coast is not less monotonous than 

 that of the inhabited places. The sea-board is nearly 

 a straight line running from north to south, and, 

 except at Mejillones, I saw no projecting headland to 

 break its uniformity. Nearly everywhere what appears 

 to be a range of flat-topped hills from about eight to 

 fifteen hundred feet in height, of uniform dull grey hue 

 unbroken by a single patch of verdure, forms the back- 

 ground. In truth, these seeming hills are the western 

 margin of the great plateau of the desert of Atacama, 

 which at its edge slopes rather steeply towards the 

 Pacific coast, sometimes leaving a level margin of one 

 or two miles in width, sometimes approaching within 

 a few hundred feet of the shore. I find it difficult to 

 form a conception of the causes which have led to 

 this singular uniformity in the western limit of the 

 volcanic rocks of the plateau. Whether we suppose 

 the mass to have been originally thrown out from 

 craters or fissures in the range of the Cordillera by 

 subaerial or submarine eruptions, we should think it 

 inevitable that the western front should show great 

 irregularities corresponding to greater volume of the 

 streams of eruptive matter in some parts. 



Admitting — what may be held for a certainty — 

 that, whatever may have been the original conditions, 

 the whole region has since been submerged, and that 

 marine action would have levelled surface inequalities, 



