A VISIT TO THE NORTHERNMOST FOREST OF OHILE. 205 
was the same, and uninteresting. In Higueritas enters a branch 
of railway from the mining district of Panulcillo, not far from here. 
Having passed the little village Angostura, the line abandons the 
valley and descends to the River Limari, following its northern _ 
to the village Huamalata, where it ends, nearly a league dista 
from Ovalle. The stations between Coquimbo and Huamalata a 
only some houses, <— Penon, from where coaches run to Anda- 
colla, famous for its gold-mines, and Angostura, south of Las 
Ca rdas. Characteristic of this part of Chile are be heaps of copper- 
ore in many stations, which seem to be established only for 
embarking Pe ores. At Huamalata an old ane was waiting 
for me, viz., Don Amable Caballero, of Ovalle, who had a carriage 
Ov. s situated in the valley of the River Limart, at the foot 
of the hills bordering it on the north side, at some distance from 
the river itself, and makes an agreeable impression when one sees 
it from the surrounding hills. We spent here three days, tain the 
The vegetation around Ovalle is of two kinds, shat of the valley 
and that of the hills. The valleys of the rivers in this — 
turned off by the channels for irrigation, winds from one side to 
the other; the ground is formed of pebbles of different size inter- 
Mixed with sand, and only on the foot of the hills there is a strip 
of ground formed of com samen soe and arable, and, notwith- 
i thas part show amongst many other ie the 
tnlerosting flim rostrata Lindl., Dolia vermiculata Lindl., D. salso- 
loides Lindl., a shrubby Atriplew, pete divaricata Moq., “lye 
chilense cee L. rachidocladum Dun., everal Hreakeniee, 
ay 
Arn, y 
ayacea, Vassomollen chilensis Planch., shel “¢ palo gordo”’ 
(fat stick) by the people. The pelo apie is a rather curious plant, 
. high, the stem about 20 em. thick, abundantly branched, 
With a grey epidermis, smooth as Pe and fall of a hick white 
milk ; in this time it bears only its small unisexual flowers, but no 
