382 CHARLES DARWIN 



posed to have perished from a similar cause, but their bodies 

 to this day have never been discovered. The union of a 

 cloudless sky, low temperature, and a furious gale of wind, 

 must be, I should think, in all parts of the world an unusual 

 occurrence. 



June zpth. We gladly travelled down the valley to our 

 former night's lodging, and thence to near the Agua amarga. 

 On July ist we reached the valley of Copiapo. The smell of 

 the fresh clover was quite delightful, after the scentless air 

 of the dry, sterile Despoblado. Whilst staying in the town I 

 heard an account from several of the inhabitants, of a hill 

 in the neighbourhood which they called " El Bramador," the 

 roarer or bellower. I did not at the time pay sufficient atten- 

 tion to the account ; but, as far as I understood, the hill was 

 covered by sand, and the noise was produced only when 

 people, by ascending it, put the sand in motion. The same 

 circumstances are described in detail on the authority of 

 Seetzen and Ehrenberg, 4 as the cause of the sounds which 

 have been heard by many travellers on Mount Sinai near the 

 Red Sea. One person with whom I conversed had himself 

 heard the noise: he described it as very surprising; and he 

 distinctly stated that, although he could not understand how 

 it was caused, yet it was necessary to set the sand rolling 

 down the acclivity. A horse walking over dry coarse sand, 

 causes a peculiar chirping noise from the friction of the par- 

 ticles; a circumstance which I several times noticed on the 

 coast of Brazil. 



Three days afterwards I heard of the Beagle's arrival at 

 the Port, distant eighteen leagues from the town. There is 

 very little land cultivated down the valley ; its wide expanse 

 supports a wretched wiry grass, which even the donkeys can 

 hardly eat. This poorness of the vegetation is owing to the 

 quantity of saline matter with which the soil is impregnated. 

 The Port consists of an assemblage of miserable little hovels, 

 situated at the foot of a sterile plain. At present, as the 

 river contains water enough to reach the sea, the inhabitants 

 enjoy the advantage of having fresh water within a mile and 

 a half. On the beach there were large piles of merchandise, 



Edinburgh Phil. Journ., Jan., 1830, p. 74; and April, 1830, p. 258 also 

 Daubeny on Volcanoes, p. 438; and Bengal Jouru., vol. vii. p. 324. 



