428 



NORTHERN CHILE. 



June, 1835. 



harm than even the drought. The river swells, and covers 

 w^ith gravel and sand the narrow^ strip of ground, which alone 

 is fit for cultivation. The flood also injures the irrigating 

 ditches. Great devastation had thus been caused three 

 years ago. 



June 8th. — We rode on to Ballenar. As the rocky 

 mountains on each hand were concealed by clouds, the 

 terrace-like plains gave the valley an appearance similar to 

 that of Santa Cruz, in Patagonia. I staid the following 

 day in the town, which is as large as Coquimbo and well 

 built. It has only lately sprung up, and entirely owes its 

 prosperity to some silver-mines. Ballenar takes its name 

 from Ballenagh, in Ireland, the birthplace of the family 

 of O^Higgins, who, under the Spanish government, were 

 presidents and generals in Chile. 



10th. — Instead of going direct to the town of Copiapo, I 

 determined to fall into the valley higher up and nearer the 

 Cordillera. We rode all day over an uninteresting country ; 

 I am tired of repeating the epithets barren and sterile. 

 These words, however, as commonly used, are comparative : 

 I have always applied them to the plains of Patagonia ; yet 

 the vegetation there can boast of spiny bushes and some 

 tufts of grass, which is absolute fertility to any thing that can 

 be seen here. And here again there are not many spaces of 

 two hundred yards square, where some little bush, cactus or 

 lichen, may not be discovered by careful examination ; and 

 in the soil seeds lie dormant ready to spring up during the 

 first rainy winter. In Peru real deserts occur, over wide 

 tracts of country. In the evening we arrived at a valley, 

 in which the bed of the streamlet was damp : following it up, 

 we came to tolerably good water. During the night, the 

 stream, before it is evaporated and absorbed, flows a league 

 lower down than during the day. Sticks were plentiful for 

 firewood, so that it was a good place of bivouac for us : 

 but for the poor animals there was not a mouthful for them 

 to eat. 



J UNE 11th. — We rode without stopping for twelve hours, 



