June^ 1835. 



COPIAPU. 



437 



wandering about the mountains for seventeen days^ having 

 lost his way. He started from Guasco^ and being accus- 

 tomed to the mountains^ did not expect any difficulty in 

 following the track to Copiapo ; but he soon became involved 

 in a labyrinth of mountains^ whence he could not escape. 

 Some of his mules had fallen over precipices, and he had 

 been in great distress. His chief difficulty arose from not 

 knowing where to find water in the lower country, so that 

 he was obliged to keep bordering the central ranges. 



We returned down the valley, and on the 2 2d reached the 

 town of Copiapo. The lower part of the valley is broad, 

 forming a fine plain like that of Aconcagua or Quillota. 

 The town covers a considerable space of ground, each house 

 possessing a garden : but it is an uncomfortable place, and 

 the dwellings are poorly furnished. Every one seems bent 

 on the one object of making money, and then migrating 

 as quickly as possible. All the inhabitants are more or less 

 directly concerned with mines ; and mines and ores are the 

 the sole subjects of conversation. Necessaries of all sorts 

 are very dear ; as the distance from the town to the port is 

 eighteen leagues, and the land carriage very expensive. A 

 fowl costs live or six shillings ; meat is nearly as dear as in 

 England ; firewood, or rather sticks, are brought on donkeys 

 from a distance of two and three days^ journey within the 

 Cordillera ; and pasturage for animals is a shilling a day : 

 all this for South America is wonderfully exorbitant. 



June 26th. — I hired a guide and eight mules to take me 

 into the Cordillera by a different line from my last expedi- 

 tion. As the country was utterly desert, we took a cargo 

 and a half of barley mixed with chopped straw. About two 

 leagues above the town, a broad valley called the " Despo- 

 blado,^' or uninhabited, branches off from the one by which 

 we had descended. Although a valley of the grandest dimen- 

 sions, and leading to a pass across the Cordillera, yet it is 

 completely dry, excepting perhaps, for a few days during 

 some very rainy winter. The bottom of the main valley was 

 nearly flat, and the sides of the crumbling mountains were 



