SCENERY OF THE MOON. 129 



absolutely without a trace of vegetable life. Among 

 the dolomite peaks of South Tyrol I had often been 

 told that such a peak was absolutely bare of vegeta- 

 tion, but had always found a fair number of plants in 

 clefts and crevices. I had been told the same thing 

 at Suez of the burnt-up eastward face of Djebel 

 Attakah, where even on the exposed rocks I had 

 been able to collect something ; but here I searched 

 utterly in vain. Not only was there no green thing ; 

 not even a speck of lichen could I detect, though I 

 looked at the rocks through a lens. Even more than 

 by the absence of life, I was impressed by the appear- 

 ance of the surface, which showed no token that water 

 had ever flowed over it. Every edge of rock was 

 sharp, as if freshly broken, and on the steep slope no 

 trace of a channel furrowed its face.* The aspect is 

 absolutely that of the scenery of the moon — of a 

 world without water and without an atmosphere. I 

 saw no insect and no lizard, no living thing, with the 



* In the preface to his " Florula Atacamensis, " Dr. PhUippi, who 

 has explored this region more thoroughly than any other traveller, states 

 that on the range of coast hills between the Pan de Azucar (lat. 26° 8' 

 south) and Miguel Diaz (lat. 24° 36') the fogs, called in Peru garua, or 

 garruga, deposit during a great part of the year some moisture which 

 occasionally takes the form of fine rain, such as is familiarly known to 

 occur on the hills near Lima. He remarks as singular the fact that the 

 same phenomenon is not observed on the coast north or south of those 

 limits. From more recent observations, it would appear that this is not 

 strictly true as regards the higher coast hills near Coquimbo, but it 

 seems to hold as regards the tract of coast to the northward, between 

 the neighbourhood of Taltal and that of Iquique, a distance of about 

 four degrees of latitude. It may be that the coast hills are lower here 

 than further south, and that as the desert region inland rises very 

 gradually, and has a higher temperature inland than near the .coast, the 

 formation of fog is prevented. Whatever be the cause, the absence of 

 fog would go far to account for the utter sterility of this region. 



K 



