1S35.] THE VALLEY OF COPIAPO. 347 



see the sun shining- constantly over so useless a country ; 

 such splendid weather ought to have brightened fields and 

 pretty gardens. The next day we reached the valley of 

 Copiapo. I was heartily glad of it ; for the whole journey 

 was a continued source of anxiety ; it was most disagree- 

 able to hear, whilst eating our own suppers, our horses 

 gnawing- the posts to which they were tied, and to have no 

 means of relieving their hunger. To all appearance, 

 however, the animals were quite fresh ; and no one could 

 have told that they had eaten nothing for the last fifty-five 

 hours. 



I had a letter of introduction to Mr. BIngley, who received 

 me very kindly at the Hacienda of Potrero Seco. This 

 estate is between twenty and thirty miles long, but very 

 narrow, being generally only two fields wide, one on each 

 side the river. In some parts the estate is of no width, 

 that is to say, the land cannot be irrigated, and therefore is 

 valueless, like the surrounding rocky desert. The small 

 quantity of cultivated land in the whole line of valley, does 

 not so much depend on inequalities of level, and consequent 

 unfitness for irrigation, as on the small supply of water. 

 The river this year was remarkably full : here, high up the 

 valley, it reached to the horse's belly, and was about 

 fifteen yards wide, and rapid ; lower down it becomes 

 smaller and smaller, and is generally quite lost, as happen(id 

 during one period of thirty years, so that not a drop entered 

 the sea. The inhabitants watch a storm over the Cordillera 

 with great interest ; as one good fall of snow provides them 

 with water for the ensuing year. This is of infinitely more 

 consequence than rain in the lower country. Rain, as often 

 as it falls, which is about once in every two or three years, 

 is a great advantage, because the cattle and mules can foi- 

 some time afterwards find a little pasture on the moun- 

 tains. But without snow on the Andes, desolation extends 

 throughout the valley. It is on record that three times 

 nearly all the inhabitants have been obliged to emigrate to 

 the south. This year there was plenty of water, and every 

 man irrigated his ground as much as he chose ; but it has 

 frequently been necessary to post soldiers at the sluices, to 

 see that each estate took only its proper allowance during 

 so many hours in the week. The valley is said to contain 

 12,000 souls, but i^s produce is sufilcient only for three 

 months in the year ; the rest of the supply being drawn from 

 Valpaniiso and the south. Beforn the discovery of the 



