426 



NORTHERN CHILE. 



June, 1835. 



travelling through these deserts one feels like a prisoner 

 shut up in a gloomy courtyard, longing to see something 

 green and to smell a moist atmosphere. 



June 3d. — Yerba Buena to Carizal. During the first part 

 of the day we crossed a mountainous rocky desert ; and after- 

 wards a long deep sandy plain, scattered over with broken 

 marine shells. There was very little water, and that little 

 saline ; hence the few streamlets were bordered on each side 

 by white incrustations, amongst which succulent salt-loving 

 plants grew. The whole country, from the coast to the Cor- 

 dillera, is desert and uninhabited. I saw traces only of one 

 living animal in abundance : this was a Bulimus, the shells of 

 which were collected together in extraordinary numbers on 

 the driest spots. In the spring, one humble little plant 

 sends out a few leaves, and on these the snails feed. As 

 they are seen only very early in the morning, when the 

 ground is slightly damp from the dew, the Guasos believe 

 they are born from it. I have observed in other places, that 

 extremely dry and sterile districts, where the soil is calca- 

 reous, are most favourable to an extraordinary increase of 

 land-shells. At Carizal there were a few cottages, some 

 brackish water, and a trace of cultivation : but it was with 

 difficulty that we purchased a little corn and straw forour horses. 



4th. — Carizal to Sauce. We continued to ride over desert 

 plains, tenanted by large herds of guanaco. We crossed 

 also the valley of Chaneral ; which, although the most fertile 

 one between Guasco and Coquimbo, is very narrow, and 

 produces so little pasture, that we could not yjurchase any 

 for our horses. At Sauce we found a very civil old gentle- 

 man superintending a copper-smelting furnace. As an espe- 

 cial favour, he allowed me to purchase at a high price, an 

 armful of dirty straw, which was all the poor horses had for 

 supper after their long day^s journey. Very few smelting fur- 

 naces are now at work in any part of Chile ; it is found more 

 profitable, on account of the extreme scarcity of firewood, 

 and of the loss from the clumsy Chilian method of reduc- 

 tion, to ship the ore for Swansea. 



