18 DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY. 



who crossed the Andes in 1820-'21, says of it: "On my return over the cordillera, we slept 

 at nearly three miles from the lake ; I walked to it, and found it about as much in circumfer- 

 ence ; it appeared very deep, and to have been the crater of a volcano, like a solfatara, as the 

 mountains are tinged with yellow, and this color is concentrated in many of the rocks detached 

 from them. With some trees and a habitation, this lake would form a very picturesque object; 

 but the only thing seen growing about it is a little grass of brownish hue, and it is a very cold 

 spot. I observed among the rocks near it the prettiest flower that I have ever seen in the 

 Andes, and which reminded me of the Alps." Mr. Miers states, that it is constantly supplied 

 from numerous small cataracts and streams derived from the melting snows ; and as it has no 

 apparent outlet, there is little doubt its surplus water escapes through the bottom, to appear 

 again at a spot within the mountains lower down, and which, from the number of perpetual 

 springs in a small locality, is called Ojos de Agua. 



Of the Lagunas del Toro and Carisso, mountain collections, alimenting branches of the 

 river Chuapa, the only information obtained is that contained on the published map of M. Gay, 

 which has been adopted on the map accompanying, except for their latitudes and longitudes. 



In the province of Coquimbo, as yet, but one has been mentioned by travellers, and to this 

 no name is assigned. Adopting the position on a MS. map of Prof. Domeyko, it is situated at 

 an elevation of 10,400 feet above the level of the ocean, in latitude 30 24', longitude 69 44'. 

 It consists of the waters of three considerable torrents, which descend through as many ravines 

 of the loftier Andes, collected in a reservoir here, after dividing into many rivulets on a beach 

 extending nearly two miles above the basin. The walls of this last are nearly vertical rocks, 

 more than a thousand feet high, having a narrow pathway only along the southwestern shore, 

 and a natural dyke to the northwest, with a narrow aperture through which the water escapes. 

 Its length is near two thirds of a mile, and its breadth rather more than half that amount. 

 As may be inferred from the number of aquatic plants covering one third of the surface, its 

 water is very shallow. As in summer the supply by the river for irrigating the fields on its 

 banks is notably deficient during many years, and the aperture in the natural dyke is only 

 about fifty yards across, Prof. Domeyko suggested that it would be easy to increase the eleva- 

 tion of the latter so as to retain a larger quantity for such seasons of necessity ; but no steps 

 have been taken to carry his useful proposition into effect. 



On his map of Atacama M. Gray introduces at the headwaters of the Eio de los Naturales 

 one of the branches of the Huasco two small lakes, and cateadores (professional mine-hunters) 

 have brought crystals and concretions of salt from a lake in the vicinity of Cerro de Azufre, 

 besides vague information of salt lakes near the coast in the great desert to the north. None 

 of them, however, can be of such considerable extent as would justify a journey of the geo- 

 graphical student solely for their examination. 



Critical examination of their margins shows that the water-courses were once deep streams, 

 susceptible of being navigated by vessels of the largest class. Indeed, the fact is demonstrable 

 by geologists, that they were inlets or arms of the sea, into which melted snows and overflowing 

 lakes in the mountains first discharged their waters. Then, as the continent rose higher and 

 higher, winding brooks, accumulating in volume with each succeeding age, became the torrents 

 that we now see them. From time to time sliding glaciers undermine rocks, and earthquakes 

 dam up channels, until the heaped-up body of water bears everything before it, not unfre- 

 quently, on its swollen tide, transporting boulders of many tons weight to localities far away 

 from analogous rocks. At these epochs, fields are submerged by the destroying element; the 

 course of the river is changed ; and when an affrighted populace return to the sites of former 

 homes, it is only to weep over garden spots irrecoverably buried beneath gravel and sand 

 deposited by the deluge. One such scene occurred on the Cachapual only a few years since, 

 painfully proving how rapidly beds of shingle may be formed, and forcibly exhibiting the 

 abrading powers of water. Even on ordinary occasions, the noise of stones striking together 

 beneath the surface, as they are borne along by the current, comes most audibly to the ear 



