Gaano Island. 



CHAPTEE IV. 



THE PERUVIAN SAND-COAST. _.jM 



Its desolate Character — The Mule is here the "Ship of the Desert" — A Ship- 

 wreck and its Consequences — Sand-Spouts — Medanos — Summer and Winter 



The Garuas — The Lomas — Change produced in their Appearance during the 



Season of Mists — Azara's Fox — Wild Animals — Birds — Eeptiles — The 

 Chincha or Gruano Islands. 



BETWEEN tho Cordilleras to the east and the Pacific to the 

 west extends, from 3° to 21° S. lat., 540 leagues long and 

 from 3 to 20 leagues broad, a desert coast, the picture of death 

 and desolation. Traversed by spurs of the mighty mountain- 

 chain, which either gradually sink into the plain, or form steep ; 

 promontories washed by the ocean, it rises and falls in alternate 

 heights and valleys, where the eye seldom sees anything but 

 fine drift-sand or sterile heaps of stone. 



Only where, at considerable intervals, some rivulet, fed by 

 the melting glaciers or by the small mountain lakes, issues from 

 the ravines of the Andes to lose itself after a short course in 

 the Pacific, green belts, like the oases of the African desert, 

 break the general monotony, and appear more charming from 

 the contrast with the nakedness of the surrounding waste. The 

 planter carefully husbands the last drop of water from those 

 scanty streams to moisten his stony fields ; for, as the tribes of 

 the Sahara can only, by dint of constant industry, preserve 



