XVI DESERT COUNTRY 371 



famous for their excellence, and are cultivated to a great 

 extent. This valley is, perhaps, the most productive one north 

 of Quillota : I believe it contains, including Coquimbo, 25,000 

 inhabitants. The next day I returned to the Hacienda, and 

 thence, together with Don Jose, to Coquimbo. 



June 2?id. — We set out for the valley of Guasco, following 

 the coast-road, which was considered rather less desert than the 

 other. Our first day's ride was to a solitary house, called Yerba 

 Buena, where there was pasture for our horses. The shower 

 mentioned as having fallen a fortnight ago, only reached about 

 half-way to Guasco ; we had, therefore, in the first part of our 

 journey a most faint tinge of green, which soon faded quite 

 away. Even where brightest, it was scarcely sufficient to 

 remind one of the fresh turf and budding flowers of the spring 

 of other countries. While travelling through these deserts one 

 feels like a prisoner shut up in a gloomy court, who longs to 

 see something green and to smell a moist atmosphere. 



June ^rd. — Yerba Buena to Carizal. During the first part of 

 the day we crossed a mountainous rocky desert, and afterwards 

 a long deep sandy plain, strewed with broken sea-shells. There 

 was very little water, and that little saline ; the whole country, 

 from the coast to the Cordillera, is an uninhabited desert. I 

 saw traces only of one living animal in abundance, namely, the 

 shells of a Bulimus, which were collected together in extraor- 

 dinary numbers on the driest spots. In the spring one humble 

 little plant sends out a few leaves, and on these the snails feed. 

 As they are seen onh' very early in the morning, when the 

 ground is slightly damp with dew, the Guasos believe that 

 they are bred from it. I have observed in other places that 

 e.xtremely dr}- and sterile districts, where the soil is calcareous, 

 are extraordinarily favourable to land-shells. At Carizal there 

 were a few cottages, some brackish water, and a trace of 

 cultivation ; but it was with difficulty that we purchased a little 

 corn and straw for our horses. 



4///. — Carizal to Sauce. We continued to ride ov^er desert 

 plains, tenanted by large herds of guanaco. We crossed also 

 the valley of Chaneral ; which, although the most fertile one 

 between Guasco and Coquimbo, is very narrow, and produces so 

 little pasture that we could not purchase any for our horses. 

 At Sauce we found a very civil old gentleman, superintending 



