FROM LIMA TO VALPARAISO. 



LEAVE CALLAO. CHINCHA ISLANDS.-r-OTHER HUANO ISLANDS ON THE COASTS OP PERU AND CHILE. PISCO ; REMARKABLE 

 CROSS ON THE SHORES OP ITS BAY. AT SEA. METEOROLOGICAL. SALT PATCHES ON THE STERILE COAST. YSLAY. 

 ARICA. ANCIENT GRAVES NEAR THE CITY. INDIAN ANTIQUITIES. VALLEYS OF AZAPA AND OCUMBA. TRADE ALONG 

 THE COAST. IQUIQUE ; SALTPETRE MINES NEAR IT. MARINE PRODUCTS. COBIJA. SCARCITY OF WATER AND FOOD. 

 TRADE. PORT OF COPIAP&. HUASCO. COQUIMBO BAY. WANT OF GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION. ARRIVE AT VALPA- 

 RAISO, AND LEAVE FOR SANTIAGO. 



The hour of departure being fixed for 1 P. M., I returned to the steamer New Grenada shortly 

 after noon of October 14. As is usual among Spanish and French people, there was much 

 unnecessary noise and vociferation by the embarking passengers and their friends, making it dif- 

 ficult for the officers of the vessel to ascertain what they were in need of; and, indeed, it might 

 reasonably have been doubted whether they knew themselves. Something like order was 

 restored towards 2 p. M. ; the decks were cleared of luggage, friends had departed, and we 

 awaited with what patience we might for liberty to get under way. So far as depended on the 

 company, the ship was ready to sail at the hour appointed; but the supreme government inva- 

 riably has despatches to forward, and also invariably these are never delivered in less than 

 from one to five hours after the time named. As they are brought on board by the captain of 

 the port, whose signature is essential to the clearance-papers, there is no alternative but to 

 await his pleasure ; and he, as well as his masters, much need a lesson in punctuality. 



Finally, at 3 P. M., we steamed out of the port with forty-five passengers bound to various 

 ports between Callao and Valparaiso. Passing through the Boqueron channel, between the 

 island of San Lorenzo and the main land, in an hour we were again climbing the long swells 

 of the Pacific. The afternoon and remainder of the day proved fine, and at night the stars 

 shone brilliantly overhead ; but there was a fog-like bank hanging about the land, occasionally 

 illumined by flashes of silent lightning. 



October 15. We passed at 6 A. M. the Chinchas, a cluster of three islands valuable only for 

 the deposits of guano on them. Their whole superficial extent is about seven square miles ; 

 yet, from actual survey, it has been estimated that ships may take 50,000 tons annually for a 

 thousand years without exhausting the supply. The deposit on the northern islet, where ships 

 now load, is above eighty feet thick in the centre, diminishing gradually towards the shore- 

 lines. Guano, or more properly huano, is the excrement of marine birds which frequent the 

 uninhabited islets and desolate promontories on several parts of this and other coasts in innu- 

 merable flocks. Eight species are enumerated as contributing to form these almost incredible 

 layers, among the most important of which are pelicans, cormorants, and a kind of petrel, the 

 Sula variegata (Tschudi), perhaps the Potayunka of the natives. At first the excrement is of 

 a light color, and is called by Peruvians huano bianco. It is the most valuable in this state, and 

 the market-price is nearly double. At the end of a year it becomes of a greyish brown ; and 

 as subsequent deposits are made, the inferior change gradually to brownish red. These last, by 

 evaporation of their watery particles in an atmosphere of perpetual drought and under pressure, 

 become more solid. Birds' eggs and skeletons are frequently found in excavating the layers. Its 

 value as a fertilizer has certainly been known to the natives as long ago as the time of the Incas, 

 and large quantities are annually consumed in all the cultivable valleys of the coast. Without 

 it the crops of maize, beans, and potatoes, all essentials in the domestic economy of the country, 



