XVI EL BRAMADOR 385 



men began to lose their strength, and the mules would not move 

 onwards. My guide's brother tried to return, but he perished, 

 and his body was found two years afterwards, lying by the side 

 of his mule near the road, with the bridle still in his hand. Two 

 other men in the party lost their fingers and toes ; and out of 

 two hundred mules and thirty cows, only fourteen mules escaped 

 alive. Many years ago the whole of a large party are supposed 

 to have perished from a similar cause, but their bodies to this 

 day have never been discovered. The union of a cloudless sky, 

 low temperature, and a furious gale of wind, must be, I should 

 think, in all parts of the world an unusual occurrence. 



June 2gtk. — We gladly travelled down the valley to our 

 former night's lodging, and thence to near the Agua amarga. 

 On July 1st we reached the valley of Copiapo. The smell of 

 the fresh clover was quite delightful, after the scentless air of 

 the dry sterile Despoblado. Whilst staying in the town I 

 heard an account from several of the inhabitants, of a hill in 

 the neighbourhood which they called " El Bramador," — the 

 roarer or bellower. I did not at the time pay sufficient 

 attention to the account ; but, as far as I understood, the hill 

 was covered by sand, and the noise was produced only when 

 people, by ascending it, put the sand in motion. The same 

 circumstances are described in detail on the authority of Seetzen 

 and Ehrenberg,^ as the cause of the sounds which have been 

 heard by many travellers on Mount Sinai near the Red Sea. 

 One person with whom I conversed had himself heard the 

 noise ; he described it as very surprising ; and he distinctly 

 stated that, although he could not understand how it was 

 caused, yet it was necessary to set the sand rolling down the 

 acclivity. A horse walking over dry and coarse sand causes 

 a peculiar chirping noise from the friction of the particles ; a 

 circumstance which I several times noticed on the coast of 

 Brazil. 



Three days afterwards I heard of the Beagles arrival at the 

 Port, distant eighteen leagues from the town. There is very 

 little land cultivated down the valley ; its wide expanse supports 

 a wretched wiry grass, which even the donkeys can hardly eat. 



1 Edinbtcrgh Phil. Journ. Jan. 1830, p. 74 ; and April 1830, p. 258. Also 

 Daubeny on Volcanoes, p. 438 ; and Bengal Journ, vol. vii. p. 324. 



2 C 



