350 NORTHERN CHILE. (CHAP. XVI. 
have brightened fields and pretty gardens. The next day we 
reached the valley of Copiapd. I was heartily glad of it; for 
the whole journey was a continued source of anxiety; it was 
most disagreeable to hear, whilst eating our own suppers, our 
horses gnawing the posts to which they were tied, and to have no 
means of relieving their hunger. To all appearance, however, 
the animals were quite fresh; and no one could have told that 
they had eaten nothing for the last fifty-five hours. 
I had a letter of introduction to Mr. Bingley, who received 
me very kindly at the Hacienda of Potrero Seco. This estate is 
between twenty and thirty miles long, but very narrow, being 
generally only two fields wide, one on each side the river. In 
some parts the estate is of no width, that is to say, the land can- 
not be irrigated, and therefore is valueless, like the surrounding 
rocky desert. ‘The small quantity of cultivated land in the whole 
line of valley, does not so much depend on inequalities of level, 
and consequent unfitness for irrigation, as on the small supply of 
water. The river this year was remarkably full: here, high up 
the valley, it reached to the horse’s belly, and was about fifteen 
yards wide, and rapid; lower down it becomes smaller and 
smaller, and is generally quite lost, as happened during one 
period of thirty years, so that not a drop entered the sea. The 
inhabitants watch a storm over the Cordillera with great interest ; 
as one good fall of snow provides them with water for the ensu- 
ing year. This is of infinitely more consequence than rain in 
dhe lower country. Rain, as often as it falls, which is about 
once in every two or three years, is a great advantage, because 
the cattle and mules can for some time afterwards find a little 
pasture on the mountains. But without snow on the Andes, 
desolation extends throughout the valley. It is on record that 
three times nearly all the inhabitants have. been obliged to 
emigrate to the south. ‘This year there was plenty of water, and 
every man irrigated his ground as much as he chose; but it has 
frequently been necessary to post soldiers at the. sluices, to see 
that each estate took only its proper allowance during so many 
hours in the week. The valley is said to contain 12,000 souls, 
but its produce is sufficient only for three months in the year ; 
the rest of the supply being drawn from Valparaiso and the south. 
Before the discovery of the famous silver-mines of Chanuncillo, 
