384 NORTHERN CHILE chap. 



The only other animal which we saw in any number was a small 

 fox : I suppose this animal preys on the mice and other small 

 rodents which, as long as there is the least vegetation, subsist 

 in considerable numbers in very desert places. In Patagonia, 

 even on the borders of the Salinas, where a drop of fresh water can 

 never be found, excepting dew, these little animals swarm. Next 

 to lizards, mice appear to be able to support existence on the 

 smallest and driest portions of the earth, — even on islets in 

 the midst of great oceans. 



The scene on all sides showed desolation, brightened and 

 made palpable by a clear, unclouded sky. For a time such 

 scenery is sublime, but this feeling cannot last, and then it becomes 

 uninteresting. We bivouacked at the foot of the "primera 

 linea,'' or the first line of the partition of the waters. The streams, 

 however, on the east side do not flow to the Atlantic, but into 

 an elevated district, in the middle of which there is a large salina, 

 or salt lake ;^thus forming a little Caspian Sea at the height, 

 perhaps, of ten thousand feet. Where we slept, there were some 

 considerable patches of snow, but they do not remain throughout 

 the year. The winds in these lofty regions obey very regular 

 laws ; every day a fresh breeze blows up the valley, and at night, 

 an hour or two after sunset, the air from the cold regions above 

 descends as through a funnel. This night it blew a gale of wind, 

 and the temperature must have been considerably below the 

 freezing-point, for water in a vessel soon became a block of ice. 

 No clothes seemed to oppose any obstacle to the air ; I suffered 

 very much from the cold, so that I could not sleep, and in the 

 morning rose with my body quite dull and benumbed. 



In the Cordillera farther southward people lose their lives 

 from snow-storms ; here, it sometimes happens from another 

 cause. My guide, when a boy of fourteen years old, was passing 

 the Cordillera with a party in the month of May ; and while in 

 the central parts, a furious gale of wind arose, so that the men 

 could hardly cling on their mules, and stones were flying along 

 the ground. The day was cloudless, and not a speck of snow 

 fell, but the temperature was low. It is probable that the 

 thermometer would not have stood very many degrees below the 

 freezing-point, but the effect on their bodies, ill protected by 

 clothing, must have been in proportion to the rapidity of the 

 current of cold air. The gale lasted for more than a day ; the 



