8 DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY. 



as Punta del Diablo, about one half the distance to these rivers, will be found in the narra- 

 tive of a journey to the mines of Chanarcillo. There it will be seen that only the geologist 

 and mineralogist find objects of interest. Keflected heat from utterly barren rocks on both 

 sides of a long narrow gorge ; scarcely water to quench the thirst, after hours of travel over 

 broken and stony paths ; probably not one representative from all the animal kingdom to 

 show that man is not the only creature tempted to visit scenes nature has so desolated these 

 are some of the characteristics not easily forgotten. 



As one ascends the valley towards the confluence of the rivers, the supply of water increases, 

 and the soil permits occasional patches to be brought under cultivation through its aid ; indeed, 

 " Potrero grande," between the village of San Antonio and the junction, has become famous 

 in this region for its fruits and vegetables. The mind ever seeks objects of comparison ; and 

 the few standards belonging to the vegetable kingdom nature has vouchsafed in many thousand 

 square leagues of northern Chile, have doubtless their influence to enhance the charms 

 and products of Potrero grande ; so that, when the lover of verdure arrives there, worn out by 

 days and weeks of travel amid sterility, as his vision may not have rested on a leaf or stalk 

 in all that time, he hails the sight of fig-trees in full bearing as would the patient, long 

 stricken by fever, a stream of cool and limpid water. 



From the confluence of the rivers there are two paths towards the Cordilleras one by the 

 Jorquera, the other by the Pulido. That by the Jorquera is the longer, though it possesses 

 attractions making it of sufficient interest for one to encounter the additional fatigue, viz : a 

 ravine, whose strata contain an abundance of marine fossils, and, a little further up stream, 

 the ruins of an Indian village, probably built when the Peruvians were masters of the country. 

 One house, at the southern end of the village, was much larger than the others, the fragments 

 of its walls proving that it must have contained several rooms. Besides this, there are the 

 walls of some thirty others, from 8 to 10 feet in diameter, and about 2 feet thick. There is no 

 cement to any of them. As somewhat similar settlements are found at several places in the 

 Andes, between Copiapo and San Jose, it is somewhat surprising that Indians should have 

 chosen such inhospitable heights for their homes, whilst there was a more genial temperature 

 and less aridity below. The most numerous fossils are pectens, lying in calcareous strata, 

 among layers of porphyry, breccia, and stratified porphyry. South of the Pulido, and on the 

 same meridian as this, there is another deposite of marine fossils even more interesting, from 

 the greater variety of shells exposed to sight, pectenites and terebratulee being very abundant. 



In the valley of the Pulido, at an elevation of 10,000 feet, there are ruins of another Indian 

 village, called Pircas, now occupied only as a preventive station against contrabandists. 

 Freshly fallen snow was found here early in March, and the warmly-clad guard were shivering 

 over fires in a locality once occupied by half-naked Indians. Somewhat higher up, a depression 

 in the mountains called " Portezuelo Pulido"* would indicate that here was the highway; 

 but, in reality, the road leads northward into the valley of El Pan, on the river Jorquera, 

 where the night is usually passed in a natural cavern of the red porphyritic breccia. This 

 cave affords mountain travellers a commodious shelter from storms, and there, also, they lie 

 by during the violence of noon-day winds, the guides invariably telling each one that, after 

 11 o'clock, it is often impossible to move ; therefore they must start up the final ascent by 

 early dawn, although the distance from the cave to the dividing line is only two hours. 



In this final stage of the journey, short as it is, one has full opportunity to examine the last 

 lines of stratified formation, which, as they approximate the granites composing the most 

 elevated ridge of the Andes, exhibit evidences of the violent revolutions and terrific shocks 

 that they have experienced ; as if the force which thrust these enormous granite masses from 

 the bosom of the earth, had actually concentrated its energy for the very crest of the mount- 

 ains. Among the rocks which enter into the composition of this up-borne formation, the 



* Portezuelo is a depression in chains of hills or mountains, always selected for roads passing from one side to the other. 



