I83S-] COAST-ROAD TO COQUIM80. 245 



CHAPTER XVI. 



HORTHERN CHILE AND PERU. 



Coast-road to Coquimbo Great Loads carried by the Miners Coquimbo 

 Earthquake Step-formed Terraces Absence of Recent Desposits Con- 

 temporaneousness of the Tertiary Formations Excursion up the Valley 

 Road to Guasco Deserts Valley of Copiapd Rain and Earthquakes 

 Hydrophobia The Despoblado Indian Ruins Probable Change of 

 Climate River-bed Arched by an Earthquake Cold Gales of Wind- 

 Noises from a Hill Iquique Salt Alluvium Nitrate of Soda Lima 

 Unhealthy Country Ruins of Callao, overthrown by an Earthquake 

 Recent Subsidence Elevated Shells on San Lorenzo, their Decomposition 

 Plain with Embedded Shells and Fragments of Pottery Antiquity of 

 the Indian Race. 



April 27th. I SET out on a journey to Coquimbo, and thence through 

 Guasco to Copiap6, where Captain Fitz Roy kindly offered to pick me 

 up in the Beagle. The distance in a straight line along the shore 

 northward is only 420 miles ; but my mode of travelling made it a 

 very long journey. I bought four horses and two mules, the latter 

 carrying the luggage on alternate days. The six animals together 

 only cost the value of twenty-five pounds sterling, and at Copiapd I 

 sold them again for twenty-three. We travelled in the same indepen- 

 dent manner as before, cooking our own meals, and sleeping in the 

 open air. As we rode towards the Vino del Mar, I took a farewell view 

 of Valparaiso, and admired its picturesque appearance. For geological 

 purposes I made a detour from the high road to the foot of the Bell of 

 Quillota. We passed through an alluvial district rich in gold, to the 

 neighbourhood of Limache, where we slept. Washing for gold supports 

 the inhabitants of numerous hovels, scattered along the sides of each 

 little rivulet ; but, like all those whose gains are uncertain, they are 

 unthrifty in their habits, and consequently poor. 



April 2&7/J. In the afternoon we arrived at a cottage at the foot of 

 the Bell mountain. The inhabitants were freeholders, which is not 

 very usual in Chile. They supported themselves on the produce of a 

 garden and a little field, but were very poor. Capital is here so 

 deficient, that the people are obliged to sell their green corn while 

 standing in the field, in order to buy necessaries for the ensuing year. 

 Wheat, in consequence, was dearer in the very district of its production 

 than at Valparaiso, where the contractors live. The next day we joined 

 the main road to Coquimbo. At night there was a very light shower of 

 rain; this was the first drop that had fallen since the heavy rain of 

 September nth and I2th, which detained me a prisoner at the Baths of 

 Cauquenes. The interval was seven and a half months ; but the rain 

 this year in Chile was rather later than usual. The distant Andes were 

 now covered by a thick mass of snow ; and were a glorious sight. 



May 2nd. The road continued to follow the coast at no 



