I33S-] IQUIQUE. 263 



covered by sand, and the noise was produced only when people, by 

 ascending it, put the sand in motion. The same circumstances are 

 described in detail on the authority of Seetzen and Ehrenberg,* as the 

 cause of the sounds which have been heard by many travellers on 

 Mount Sinai near the Red Sea. One person with whom I conversed 

 had himself heard the noise ; he described it as very surprising ; and 

 he distinctly stated that, although he could not understand how it was 

 caused, yet it was necessary to set the sand rolling down the acclivity. 

 A horse walking over dry and coarse sand, causes a peculiar chirping 

 noise from the friction of the "particles ; a circumstance which I several 

 times noticed on the coast of Brazil. 



Three days afterwards I heard of the Beagle's arrival at the' Port, dis- 

 tant eighteen leagues from the town. There is very little land cultivated 

 down the valley; its wide expanse supports a wretched wiry grass, 

 which even the donkeys can hardly eat. This poorness of the vege- 

 tation is owing to the quantity of saline matter with which the soil is 

 impregnated. The Port consists oi an assemblage of miserable little 

 hovels, situated at the foot of a sterile plain. At present, as the river 

 contains water enough to reach the sea, the inhabitants enjoy the 

 advantage of having fresh water within a mile and a half. On the 

 beach there were large piles of merchandise, and the little place had 

 an air of activity. In the evening I gave my adios, with a hearty good- 

 will, to my companion Mariano Gonzales, with whom I had ridden 

 so many leagues in Chile. The next morning the Beagle sailed for 

 Iquique. 



July 12th. We anchored in the port of Iquique, in lat. 20 12', on 

 the coast of Peru. The town contains about a thousand inhabitants, 

 and stands on a little plain of sand at the foot of a great wall of rock, 

 two thousand feet in height, here forming the coast. The whole is 

 utterly desert. A light shower of rain falls only once in very many 

 years ; and the ravines consequently are filled with detritus, and the 

 mountain-sides covered by piles of fine white sand, even to a height 

 of a thousand feet. During this season of the year a heavy bank of 

 clouds, stretched over the ocean, seldom rises above the wall of rocks 

 on the coast. The aspect of the place was most gloomy; the little 

 port, with its few vessels, and small group of wretched houses, seemed 

 overwhelmed and out of all proportion with the rest of the scene. 



The inhabitants live like persons on board a ship : every necessary 

 comes from a distance : water is brought in boats from Pisagua, about 

 forty miles northward, and is sold at the rate of nine reals (45. 6d.) an 

 eighteen-gallon cask : I bought a wine-bottle full for threepence, la 

 like manner firewood, and of course every article of food, is imported. 

 Very few animals can be maintained in such a place : on the ensuing 

 morning I hired with difficulty, at the price of four pounds sterling, 

 two mules and a guide to take me to the nitrate of soda works. These 

 are at present the support of Iquique. This salt was first exported 



* Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, Jan. 1830, p. 74 ; and April 1830, p. 258. 

 Also "Daubeny on Volcanoes." p. 438; and Bengal Jouma^ vol. vii,,- p. 324, 



