124 PERU. 



though he could not undenstand 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 1 

 several times noticed on the coast of Brazil. 



Three days afterwards I heard of the Beagle's 

 arrival at the Port, distant 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 vegetation is 

 owing to the quantity of saline matter with which 

 the soil is impregnated. The Port consists of 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 inhab- 

 itants 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 com- 

 panion Mariano Gonzales, witla whom I had ridden 

 so many leagues in Chile. The next morning the 

 Beagle sailed for Iquique. 



July 12tk. — 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, 2000 feet in height, here forming the coast. 

 The whole is utterly desert. A light shower of 

 rain falls only once in veiy 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. Dui-ing 

 this season of the year a heavy bank of clouds. 



