446 FROM LIMA TO VALPARAISO. 



and unless the mist at the summit of the high cliffs hack of it may he so termed, it never rains. 

 The only food, then, ohtainahle, is drawn from the sea, and of this the supply is hoth good and 

 ahundant ; hut with no other alimentary resource near, it passes my powers to divine what a 

 settlement should ever have heen made here for. Drinking-water is either distilled from the 

 sea-water or hrought in hoats from the river Pisagua, 40 miles to the northward the stream 

 laid down as near this place on two or three maps in my possession, having no existence what- 

 ever. A grinding-mill, to he driven hy steam, was erected two or three years ago, and there 

 are now two in operation. Some are ill-natured enough to say that the last machinery was 

 hrought to grind silver ores ; but as none could he found after it arrived, its principal use is 

 in the distillation of sea-water. 



The only export of much value is saltpetre, hrought from mines in the mountains at a dis- 

 tance of twelve leagues. A much larger quantity is shipped from Mexillones and Pisagua the 

 former 20, and the latter 45 miles distant. The vein from which it is extracted is between 

 two and three feet thick, and follows the margin of a grand basin or plain for one hundred and 

 fifty miles. The nitrate is mixed with a little sulphate of soda and a good deal of common salt. 

 Between the mines and the Cordilleras there are two or three small villages, and a small supply 

 of water for irrigation from the melted snows. The fields here situated supply the population on 

 the coast with a part, and animals with all their food. An English merchant largely engaged 

 in the trade told me that the mules employed in bringing saltpetre to the port have neither 

 food nor drink from the time they leave the mines until their return on the third day. We saw 

 troops of the poor beasts just relieved from their loads, first throw themselves on the sand with 

 protruded tongues, then rush into the sea to allay their agony of thirst by absorption of mois- 

 ture through the pores of the skin. 



An American brig and one English barque were the only vessels loading. Their cargoes were 

 put up in sacks weighing from two hundred and fifty to three hundred pounds each, which are 

 conveyed from the shore to launches in deeper water by balsas, five sacks being the freight of 

 a balsa. A mule-load is two smaller bags weighing from seventy to one hundred pounds each, 

 and the cost of conveyance from the mines is half a dollar per hundred weight. 



We found the atmosphere strongly charged with the odor of sea-weed, which clings in exten- 

 sive masses to the igneous rocks bounding the shore. It is said that lime, of a superior qual- 

 ity to that obtained from shells, is prepared from it. The latter lie in great quantities on the 

 beach; the Trochus ater, Mytilus orbignyanus, Venus Peruviana, and a Mesodesma, being among 

 the most numerous. Chitons and a large edible barnacle (Balanus), called "pico," from its 

 peculiar projecting beak, are also found on the rocks, and are greatly esteemed as articles of food. 

 But the supply of many most excellent kinds of fish is so abundant, that no one values them 

 much. A solitary exception is an old fisherman, whose hut was shown us near the sandy beach 

 to the south of the town; his food being almost wholly of marine productions, the mass of 

 skeletons accumulated is quite extraordinary. He has passed forty years alone on the spot, 

 during the latter half of which he has never been known to visit Iquique. The small supplies 

 of bread, water, and clothing, required by him, are conveyed regularly by those who purchase 

 his fish. 



Left the port shortly after 1 p. M., and sailed along within a mile or two of the coast as nearly as 

 straight lines from point to point would permit. Throughout the afternoon the sky was obscured 

 by cirro-stratus, apparently essential to human life on this arid coast ; the night, until after ten 

 o'clock clear and calm, permitting an excellent view of the stars that had risen higher than the 

 Andes. The sea was not luminous, as on the preceding evening. 



October 21. Until 2 p. M. the day was wholly overcast, and the air calm, with a smooth and 

 almost placid sea. So little regard is exhibited for the observance of the Sabbath in this part of 

 the world, that one soon ceases to recognise the days of the week, unless marked by other events ; 

 and consequently, until reference was had to the date, I could scarcely believe that the day ap- 

 pointed for man's rest had again come round. 



