98 EXPLOITATION OF THE FORESTS 



vegetation extends over them. But there is no other 

 part where the erratic nature of the waters is so marked, 

 the vagabondage so considerable, as in this section of 

 the basin of the Rio Dulce. The small towns of Atamis- 

 qui and Salavina, which lived on the waters of the Dulce, 

 were suddenly ruined in 1825, when the river, in conse- 

 quence of a particularly violent flood, turned away to 

 the south and lost itself in the Salinas Grandes. A canal 

 was dug in 1897 to irrigate the district of Loreto, on the 

 left bank of the Dulce, but the entrance was badly 

 protected, and the flood of 1901 swept into it, and, 

 guided by it, reached the bed it had abandoned a century 

 before, going south-eastward toward Atamisqui. That 

 town and Salavina recovered their prosperity, while it 

 was necessary to abandon the farms on the Rio des 

 Salines, which now has water only during high floods. 

 Actual beds, old beds that are always ready to serve 

 again, and traces of canals changed and cut by the 

 stream, form a great network in the midst of the plain ; 

 and the flood rolls to one side or the other according to 

 the road open to it, and the facility with which the 

 various elements of the network lend themselves to the 

 passage of the water. Such is the land of the banados. 



You enter it to-day at Loreto station, where the 

 line from Santiago to Frias approaches within a few 

 miles of it. This station is erected in the midst of the 

 arid monte, and owes its existence to the neighbouring 

 banados. Turning eastward from the railway, as soon 

 as one has crossed the broad, sandy bed of the Rio des 

 Salines, one finds oneself in the heart of the banados 

 farms. The road passes between hedges {cercas), over 

 the top of which one sees the green of the wheat and 

 lucerne. The plots are very small : gardens rather than 

 fields. In clearing the ground they have preserved the 

 best-situated trees, and the light foliage gives a useful 

 shade to the crops. The crown of the algarrobas rises 

 everywhere above the top of the hedges. 



The fields do not cover the whole area of the annual 



