10 Geological and Miscellaneous Notice of Tarapaca. 



Formerly this article was procured from a small island opposite 

 to Iquique ; but this source has now become nearly exhausted. 

 On the coast, a few leagues to the southward, it is found in large 

 quantity, and it is from this place that a large part of the guano 

 used in the country is derived. A number of small vessels are 

 constantly employed in the trade, and it has been estimated that 

 a hundred thousand quintals are yearly sold in Peru. 



The value of this substance as a manure was known to the 

 Peruvians before the time of the Spanish conquest ; it had been 

 transported hundreds of miles for fertilizing the soil of distant 

 places. It is still carried on the backs of mules over rough moun- 

 tain paths, many leagues inland, and at a great expense, for the 

 use of the agricultural districts of Peru and Bolivia. 



Most of the inhabitants of the ports of Tarapaca, of which 

 Iquique, containing about twelve hundred, is the principal, are 

 engaged in the saltpetre trade, while those of the inland towns 

 are dependent upon agriculture, mining, and the reduction of sil- 

 ver ores for their support. 



The climate is highly salubrious, and many of the inhabitants 

 live to a great age. The sky, generally deep rich blue, is some- 

 times diversified with a few light flocculent clouds, but it never 

 rains. The air is clear and dry, and the heat of the sun's rays 

 intense, yet, owing to the extreme dryness of the air, and the 

 consequent rapid evaporation, if protected from the direct rays of 

 the sun, one suffers but little from the heat of the climate. 



Upon wetting the bulb of a thermometer with water, in the 

 shade, the mercury has been observed to fall 18° of Fahrenheit's 

 scale. Dead bodies dry without putrefying, and in all parts of 

 the province where there is much travel, the dead bodies of mules 

 and horses are seen, often thrown up in piles as landmarks for the 

 traveller. In the church-yard at Iquique two bodies were left on 

 the ground by their relatives, who were unable or unwilling to 

 pay the fees required for their interment in consecrated ground. 

 Six weeks after I saw them in the same spot ; they had become 

 dry and shrivelled, without emitting any disagreeable odor.* 



* As a further indication of the extreme dryness of the climate, I may mention 

 that while travelling further south, among the Andes of Atacama, I met with a 

 vein of common salt, pure and beautifully transparent. Some of this salt I after- 

 wards saw in an Indian village, ingeniously wrought into frames for prints — the 

 lustre undiminished, and the salt and paper perfectly dry. 



