120 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



the direct land journey from Arica, involving a ride 

 of some two hundred miles through a difficult 

 ■country, partly almost a desert, and partly through 

 the defiles of the Cordillera, or returning by another 

 steamer to Mollendo, and thence making his way 

 between the hostile Chilian and Peruvian forces to 

 the shores of his native lake of Titicaca. There 

 was, in the latter case, the additional difficulty that 

 Mollendo is about the worst port on the western 

 coast of America. It is, in fact, an open roadstead, 

 and, although there is little wind, the swell from the 

 Pacific often breaks with a heavy surf upon the shore, 

 and serious accidents are not infrequent. As all 

 seamen are agreed, the terminus of the railway should 

 have been fixed at Quilca, about the same distance 

 from Arequipa as Mollendo, and, as usual in Peru, 

 the selection of the latter is attributed to a corrupt 

 bargain. 



Early on May 2 we cast anchor opposite Arica. 

 There is nothing deserving to be called a harbour ; 

 but a projecting headland on the south side of the 

 little town protects the roadstead from the southerly 

 breeze and the swell, which was here scarcely per- 

 ceptible. On landing, I hastened along the shore on 

 the north side, where a fringe of low bushes and some 

 patches of rusty green gave promise to the botanist, 

 and broke the monotony of the incessant grey which 

 is the uniform tint of the Pacific coast from Payta to 

 Coquimbo. As at very many other places on the 

 coast, the maps indicate a stream from the Cordillera 

 falling into the sea at Arica, but the traveller searches 

 in vain for running water, or even for a dry channel 



