ADDENDUM. 



METEORIC IRON OF ATACAMA. 



BY DR. R. A. PHILIPPI. 



[From the " Analee de la UniTersidad de Chile," for June, 1854.] 



When hunting guanacos, some thirty or forty years ago, the meteoric iron of the Desert of 

 Atacama was discovered by two Indians from the hamlet of Peine, situated some twenty-two 

 leagues to the southeast of Atacama — Jose Maria Chaile and Matias Mariano Eamos — the latter 

 now dead. Being white and soft when cut, they at first mistook it for silver, and Chaile 

 extracted two masses from their places, each weighing five or six arrobas (of twenty-five pounds 

 each), which were buried in the ground near the water-holes of Pajonal, though the spot of 

 their concealment is no longer remembered. As soon as it was known that it was meteoric 

 iron and not silver which they had found, many persons curious in such matters made expedi- 

 tions in search of specimens, others asked like samples from residents of Atacama, who availed 

 themselves of the inhabitants of Peine to obtain them, and I was told that even the blacksmiths 

 of Atacama sought the iron for manufacturing purposes. The larger specimens were the first 

 to be taken away ; and now the iron is so nearly gone, that I am persuaded it will cost much 

 time to any one who makes a journey in search of the few fragments of this mineral remaining. 



This rare substance is found at one league in a southwest direction from the water-holes of 

 Imilac — almost in the centre of the most arid and desolate part of the desert. Imilac is distant 

 in a right line from the coast about thirty leagues, from Cobija forty leagues, and from Atacama 

 thirty-five leagues. On the west, the nearest place where water can be had is at Aguas Blancas, 

 some twenty-four leagues off; in the direction of Atacama, none exists nearer than Tilopaso, 

 nineteen leagues distant ; on the east it may be found at Pajonal, a journey of seven leagues, 

 and at Punta Negra, twelve and a half leagues off, on the road towards Paposa. Imilac is a 

 little hollow at an elevation of some 3,350 varus, or 8,620 French feet, above the level of the 

 sea, with a small salt marsh near its centre, which produces a few gramineous plants, viz : a 

 species of Festuca, the Schyus acicularis, or a species very similar to it, a Ciperacea, and a Trig- 

 lochin. Even these are so scarce that a dozen mules would find it impossible to satisfy their 

 hunger. There is no other combustible than the dung of mules, and the plants eaten by the 

 poor animals are charged with so much salt that this burns only after much difiiculty, leaving 

 a sort of black scoria instead of ashes. I found it impossible to boil water with it ; and as 

 observation of the temperature of ebullition was the only mode left to me by which to calculate 

 the heights of these elevated places, after my aneroid no longer served and the mercurial 

 barometer had become useless, the altitude assigned to Imilac can be considered only approx- 

 imate. 



One of the very discoverers of the iron, Jose Maria Chaile, served as my guide to the spot. 

 In order to reach it, on leaving the water-holes of Imilac we turned to the southwest, entering 

 a little valley with an eastern aperture, whose very gentle slopes are scarcely more than (30 

 or 40 varas) 110 to 120 feet high. After half an hour's travel, the first small specimen of 

 iron was found, and ten minutes later we reached the principal place from whence it has been 



