LIMA AND SAN LORENZO. 



CHAPTER XVI 



Coast-road to Coquimbo — Great loads carried by the miners — Coquimbo — Earthquake 

 — Step-formed terraces — Absence of recent deposits — Contemporaneousness of 

 the Tertiary formations — Excursion up the valley — Road to Guasco — Deserts — 

 Valley of Copiapo — Rain and earthquakes — Hydrophobia — The Despoblado — 

 Indian ruins — Probable change of climate — River-bed arched by an earthquake 

 — Cold gales of wind — Noises from a liill — Iquique — Salt alluvium — Nitrate 

 of soda — Lima — Unhealthy country — Ruins of Callao, overthrown by an 

 earthquake — Recent subsidence— Elevated shells on San Lorenzo, their decom- 

 position — Plain with embedded shells and fragments of pottery — Antiquity of 

 the Indian Race. 



NORTHERN CHILE AND PERU 



April 2'jth. — I set out on a Journey to Coquimbo, and thence 

 through Guasco to Copiapo, where Captain Fitz Roy kindly 

 offered to pick me up in the Beagle. The distance in a straight 

 line along the shore northward is only 420 miles ; but my 

 mode of travelling made it a very long journey. I bought 



