APPENDIX. 



2S1 



rapaca Mountain ; the latter will probably be seen first ; they are nine 

 miles to the southward of the anchorage. 



The houses in the village, when first seen, have just the appearance 

 of so many black rocks on a sandy beach. The anchorage is very 

 tolerable, as it is sheltered from the S.W. swell by the island; which 

 is surrounded by numerous small detached rocks, particularly on the 

 N.E. and W. sides ; therefore it should not be approached nearer 

 than half a mile. 



This island was once much higher ; the many cargoes of birds' 

 dung* it has afforded have reduced it to its present low state. The 

 landing is bad at the best time, as you have to thread your way 

 among patches of sunken rocks ; on which the sea breaks with great 

 violence at the full and change of the moon : several boats have been 

 knocked to pieces, and lives lost. In the summer it is a calm nearly 

 all night, sometimes there is a light air from the land. The sea breeze 

 sets in from the southward or south-west about ten or eleven in 

 the forenoon ; it seldom blows fresh, but lasts until eight or ten at 

 night. In the winter, calms, hazy weather, and light northerly winds 

 are common. 



The only trade now to Iquique is for saltpetre ; the rich silver 

 mines formerly worked are exhausted. 



The water the inhabitants use is brought from Pisagua, a small bay 

 thirty miles to the northward, for which they pay dearly, brackish 

 as it is. Forty houses and an old church, situated on a bare sandy 

 flat, without a vestige of verdure of any kind near, are the features 

 Iquique presents ; in vain does the eye wandei for something green 

 to rest upon — extreme desolation reigns every where, from shore 

 to summit. 



No. 41. 



Remarks on the Coast of Peru. 



All the bearings are magnetic. 



From Point San Pedro (the south point of the bay of Nuestra 

 Senora), at the distance of twenty miles, is Point Grande, the 

 north point of the before -named bay. This point, when seen from 

 the S.W., appears high and rounded, terminating in a low rugged 



* Called ' guano :' it is a valuable manure. 



