THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 375 



some information might possibly be gained by considering 

 the circumstances under which it originates in distant cli- 

 mates ; for it is improbable that a dog already bitten, should 

 have been brought to these distant countries. 



At night, a stranger arrived at the house of Don Benito, 

 and asked permission to sleep there. He said he had been 

 wandering about the mountains for seventeen days, having 

 lost his way. He started from Guasco, and being accustomed 

 to travelling in the Cordillera, did not expect any difficulty 

 in following the track to Copiapo; but he soon became 

 involved in a labyrinth of mountains, whence he could not 

 escape. Some of his mules had fallen over precipices, and he 

 had been in great distress. His chief difficulty arose from 

 not knowing where to find water in the lower country, so that 

 he was obliged to keep bordering the central ranges. 



We returned down the valley, and on the 22nd reached 

 the town of Copiapo. The lower part of the valley is broad, 

 forming a fine plain like that of Quillota. The town covers 

 a considerable space of ground, each house possessing a gar- 

 den : but it is an uncomfortable place, and the dwellings are 

 poorly furnished. Every one seems bent on the one object 

 of making money, and then migrating as quickly as possible. 

 All the inhabitants are more or less directly concerned with 

 mines; and mines and ores are the sole subjects of conver- 

 sation. Necessaries of all sorts are extremely dear; as the 

 distance from the town to the port is eighteen leagues, and 

 the land carriage very expensive. A fowl costs five or six 

 shillings; meat is nearly as dear as in England; firewood, 

 or rather sticks, are brought on donkeys from a distance of 

 two and three days' journey within the Cordillera; and pas- 

 turage for animals is a shilling a day : all this for South 

 America is wonderfully exorbitant. 



June 26th. I hired a guide and eight mules to take me 

 into the Cordillera by a different line from my last excur- 

 sion. As the country was utterly desert, we took a cargo 

 and a half of barley mixed with chopped straw. About two 

 leagues above the town a broad valley called the " Despo- 

 blado," or uninhabited, branches off from that one by which 

 we had arrived. Although a valley of the grandest dimen- 



