48o A NATURALIST IN THE PACIFIC chap. 



vegetated and a subsoil drainage seaward exists. Under ordinary 

 conditions the sensation of moisture in the sand a few inches down 

 is not produced by the mere pro.ximity of the sea. On the Anto- 

 fagasta and Iquique beaches the temperature in the heat of the day 

 of the surface half inch ranged from 120" to 130° F., whilst 

 four inches down it was 95° to loo^ and no moisture was found by 

 scooping five or six inches down. On the Taltal beach, which lies 

 towards the southern end of the desert region, I noticed, besides a 

 few plants of Suaeda fruticosa, two other species of the orders 

 Santalaceai and Nolanacese, evidently intruders from the inland 

 regions. Where the zone of extreme aridity terminates at the north 

 between Pisagua and Arica a (qw bushes are to be seen on the hill- 

 slopes behind the beaches. 



Very little seed -drift came under my notice on the beaches of the 

 desert zone. Here and there I found a few Medicago pods and 

 some seeds of the large pumpkin above noticed, but that was all. 

 This is due as a rule to the seed-drift being masked by an enormous 

 amount of rubbish, mostly brought from the south by the Hum- 

 boldt Current. My walk for five miles along the beaches imme- 

 diately north of Antofagasta gave me an experience in the way of 

 stranded drift such as I have never met with on the beaches of 

 any other region. All the dead bodies of the Chilian coast to the 

 southward seem to have been stranded in the bend of Moreno Bay, 

 on the shore of which Antofagasta lies ; and the air was tainted 

 with decaying flesh, the past being mixed up with the present in a 

 most unrefreshing fashion. Besides carcases of sea-lions, six feet 

 in length, sharks, dog-fish, and fish of many sorts, some of them 

 dried up, others in a state of putrefaction, there were dead 

 penguins, dead pelicans, dead sea-birds of other kinds, the bodies of 

 horses, cattle, dogs, &c., all preyed upon by the numerous vultures 

 and skuas, and in some localities by hungry-looking dogs of large 

 size that took no notice of me as they slunk along. The past was 

 represented by great quantities of bones that lay bleaching on the 

 sand, with here and there a vertebra of a whale, making in all quite 

 a varied osteological collection. But this was not all. Carcases of 

 all sorts were drifting towards the beach. Here a vulture, there a 

 skua, there again a dog stood just beyond the tide-wash looking 

 keenly seaward ; and by following the direction of their gaze one 

 could see that each had marked down a carcase slowly drifting in. 

 Now and then they would make a dash, scarcely waiting for the 

 new arrival to be washed up by the waves. But there was no 

 competition, since there was enough for all. 



