110 NORTHERN CHILE, 



Atacama, a barrier far worse than the most tur- 

 bulent ocean. After staying a few days at Potre- 

 ro Seco, I proceeded up the valley to the house of 

 Don Benito Cruz, to whom I had a letter of intro- 

 duction. I found him most hospitable ; indeed, it 

 is impossible to bear too strong testimony to the 

 kindness with which travellers are received in al- 

 most every part of South America. The next day 

 I hired some mules to take me by the ravine of 

 Jolquera into the central Cordillera. On the sec- 

 ond night the weather seemed to foretel a storm of 

 snow or rain, and whilst lying in our beds we felt 

 a trifling shock of an earthquake. 



The connection between earthquakes and the 

 weather has been often disputed : it appears to me 

 to be a point of great interest, which is little under- 

 stood. Humboldt has remarked, in one part of the 

 Personal Narrative,* that it would be difficult for 

 any person who had long resided in New Andalu- 

 sia, or in Lower Peru, to deny that there exists 

 some connection between these phenomena : in an- 

 other part, however, he seems to think the connec- 

 tion fanciful. At Guayaquil, it is said that a heavy 

 shower in the dry season is invariably followed by 

 an earthquake. In Northern Chile, from the ex- 

 treme infrequency of rain, or even of weather fore- 

 boding rain, the probability of accidental coinci- 

 dences becomes very small ; yet the inhabitants 

 are here most firmly convinced of some connection 

 between the state of the atmosphere and of the 

 trembling of the ground. I was much struck by 



* Vol. iv., p. 11, and vol. ii., p. 217. For the remarks on Gua- 

 yaquil, see Silliman's Journ., vol. xxiv., p. 384. For those on Tac- 

 na, by Mr. Hamilton, see Trans, of British Association, 1840. For 

 those on Coseguina, see Mr. Caldcleugh, in Phil. Trans., 1835. 

 In the former edition, I collected several references on the coinci- 

 dences between sudden falls in the barometer and earthquakes, 

 and between earthquakes and meteors. • 



