1835.] VALLEY OF COPIAPO. 335 



rainy winter. lu Peru real deserts occur over wide tracts of 

 country. In the evening we arrived at a valley, in which the bed 

 of the streamlet was damp : following it up, we came to tolerably 

 good water. Daring the night, the stream, from not being 

 evaporated and absorbed so quickly, flows a league lower down 

 than during the day. Sticks were plentiful for firewood, so that it 

 was a good place of bivouac for us ; but for the poor animals there 

 was not a mouthful to eat. 



June llth. We rode without stopping for twelve hours, till wo 

 reached an old smelting-furnace, where there was water and fire- 

 wood ; but our horses again had nothing to eat, being shut up in 

 an old courtyard. The line of road was hilly, and the distant 

 views interesting" from the varied colours of the bare mountains. 

 It was almost a pity to see the sun shining constantly over so use- 

 less 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 disagreeable 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 con- 

 sequent 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 happened 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, 



