336 NORTHERN CHILE. [CHAP. xvi. 



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 for some time 

 afterwards find a little pasture on the mountains. 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 

 its produce is sufficient only for three months in the year ; the rest 

 of the supply being drawn from Valparaiso and the south. Before 

 the discovery of the famous silver-mines of Chanuncillo, Copiapo 

 was in a rapid state of decay ; but now it is in a very thriving 

 condition ; and the town, which was completely overthrown by an 

 earthquake, has been rebuilt. 



The valley of Copiapo, forming a mere ribbon of green in a 

 desert, runs in a very southerly direction; so that it is of con- 

 siderable length to its source in the Cordillera. The valleys of 

 Guasco and Copiapo may both be considered as long narrow 

 islands, separated from the rest of Chile by deserts of rock instead 

 of by salt water. Northward of these, there is one other very 

 miserable valley, called Paposo, which contains about two hundred 

 souls; and then there extends the real desert of Atacama a 

 barrier far worse than the most turbulent ocean. After staying 

 a few days at Potrero Seco, I proceeded up the valley to the 

 house of Don Benito Cruz, to whom I had a letter of introduction. 

 I found him most hospitable ; indeed it is impossible to bear too 

 strong testimony to the kindness with which travellers are received 

 in almost 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 second night the weather seemed to foretell 

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

 trifling shock of an earthquake. 



The connexion between earthquakes and the weather has been 

 often disputed : it appears to me to be a point of great interest, 

 which is little understood. Humboldt has remarked in one part 

 of the Personal Narrative,* that it would bo difficult for any 



* Vol. iv. p. 11, and vol. ii. p. 217. For the remarks on Guayaquil, see 

 Silliman's Journ., vol. xxiv. p. 384. For those on Tacna by Mr. Hamilton, 



