250 JVotes on JVaturcd History. [May, 



Upon being so suddenly disturbed, it reluctantly took to flight, soar- 

 ing gracefully over our heads in gradually expanding circles, un- 

 til it became lost to the eye in the remote distance toward the west. 



Upon gaining the summit of the cliff, and directing the sight 

 over the widely extended scene, a prospect was disclosed that for 

 sterility and desolation can scarcely be surpassed on the surface 

 of the globe. In every direction but in that toward the sea, and 

 as far as the power of vision could extend, it was one wide mo- 

 notonous plain, occasionally disturbed by such slight and gentle 

 undulations, as scarcely at all to be discernable. The eye wan- 

 dered in vain for some solitary spot of verdure to afford it a mo- 

 ments relief, but none was anywhere visible save a few stunted 

 evergreen shrubs, with sombre foliage sparingly scattered along 

 the margin of the cliff", and in a still less degree, some rigid or 

 succulent herbaceous plant, which seemed to contend for a bare 

 existence in some sheltered or secluded recess among the rocks. 

 The whole scene strikingly resembled the sea, in all but its beau- 

 tiful hue. No sounds but those proceeding from ourselves dis- 

 turbed the profound solitude that reigned around, and were it not 

 for the appearance of a single swallow, skimming the surface of 

 the ground in pursuit of sustenance, the stridulous sounds of some 

 orthopteras insects, and the well defaied trail of the wandering 

 Guanaco, it would have been diflicult to realize that animated 

 existence had ever approached the spot. 



Standing pools or salinas are not unfrequent in the depressions 

 of these plains, some of them of considerable extent, which in the 

 winter months, when the rains descend in copious showers, be- 

 come filled with brine, but when the summer sun evaporates the 

 water it leaves them covered with a glistening sheet of white, 

 resembling snow. This deposition is composed of crystalline 

 salt, sometimes more than a foot in thickness, and then it becomes 

 almost the only employment of the native Indians to transport it 

 in large quantities for sale. Owing however to its containing 

 foreign impurities, it is not much esteemed for the preservation of 

 animal food. Waters that percolate this plain, and discharge 

 themselves in trickling rills along the shore of the sea, possess 

 at all times an exceedingly brackish taste, and the few herbace- 

 ous plants to be met with scattered along the surface, emit the 

 same flavor upon being chewed. These salinas are margined by 

 shores consisting of a slimy blackish mud, containing in large 

 quantities most beautiful chrystals of gypsum, and strange as it 

 may appear, are inhabited by numerous naked worms, or anne- 

 lides and infusoria. These salt lakes are the usual resort of the 

 flamingo, and this beautiful and interesting bird may not unfre- 

 qucntly be seen in some considerable numbers traversing the mud 

 in search of a comfortable repast. 



