3^6 Peru chap. 



This poorness of the vegetation is owing to the quantity of 

 saline matter with which the soil is impregnated. The Port 

 consists of an assemblage of miserable little hovels, situated at 

 the foot of a sterile plain. At present, as the river contains 

 water enough to reach the sea, the inhabitants enjoy the 

 advantage of having fresh water within a mile and a half 

 On the beach there were large piles of merchandise, and the 

 little place had an air of activity. In the evening I gave my 

 adios, with a hearty good -will, to my companion Mariano 

 Gonzales, with whom I had ridden so many leagues in Chile. 

 The next morning the Beagle sailed for Iquique. 



July 12th. — We anchored in the port of Iquique, in lat. 

 20° 12', on the coast of Peru. The town contains about a 

 thousand inhabitants, and stands on a little plain of sand at 

 the foot of a great wall of rock, 2000 feet in height, here 

 forming the coast. The whole is utterly desert. A light 

 shower of rain falls only once in very many years ; and the 

 ravines consequently are filled with detritus, and the mountain- 

 sides covered by piles of fine white sand, even to a height of a 

 thousand feet. During this season of the year a heavy bank 

 of clouds, stretched over the ocean, seldom rises above the 

 wall of rocks on the coast. The aspect of the place was most 

 gloomy ; the little port, with its few vessels, and small group of 

 wretched houses, seemed overwhelmed and out of all proportion 

 with the rest of the scene. 



The inhabitants live like persons on board a ship : every 

 necessary comes from a distance : water is brought in boats 

 from Pisagua, about forty miles northward, and is sold at the 

 rate of nine reals (4s. 6d.) an eighteen-gallon cask : I bought a 

 wine-bottleful for threepence. In like manner firewood, and 

 of course every article of food, is imported. Very few animals 

 can be maintained in such a place : on the ensuing morning I 

 hired with difficulty, at the price of four pounds sterling, two 

 mules and a guide to take me to the nitrate of soda works. 

 These are at present the support of Iquique. This salt was 

 first exported in 1830 : in one year an amount in value of one 

 hundred thousand pounds sterling was sent to France and 

 England. It is principally used as a manure and in the 

 manufacture of nitric acid : owing to its deliquescent property 



