COPIAPO, FROM THE Rn'ER SiDE. 



HORTICULTURE IN THE COPIAPO VALLEY, CHILI. 



THE outlet followed by the river Copia-po to 

 the sea is similar to many others, some 

 smaller, some larger, which run down to 

 the Pacific ocean from the high Cordilleras 

 that stretch along the eastern frontier of 

 northern Chili and the whole of Peru. These 

 streams are formed almost entirely by the melting 

 of the snow deposited in winter upon the summits 

 of the mountains, as there is seldom sufficient rain 

 in any part of this vast territory to cause a river of 

 itself. The snow continues to melt more or less 

 throughout the summer, and thus the water-courses 

 are fed. The waters find their way down among 

 the hills by tortuous and often very narrow and 

 steep channels, on rare occasions, when in sufficient 

 quantity, flooding the banks and sweeping the sand 

 and rocks into the lower levels, where one may see 

 broad basins and scattered boulders lying about. 

 Such an occasion occurred some three years since, 

 in this very valley, the like of which had not been 



known to the oldest inhabitant. The melting snows, 

 aided by an unusual rainfall, poured down in such 

 torrents that the ordinary banks of the channel were 

 overflowed ; Copiapo and its gardens were sub- 

 merged, the inhabitants being obliged to paddle 

 about portions of the city in boats ; the embank- 

 ments of the railway were washed away in many 

 places, obstructing travel for several months ; and 

 the swollen tide rushed through the old mouth of 

 the river into the sea, a sight which no one then 

 living on the coast had ever witnessed before. 



Ordinarily, the waters are absorbed by the sandy flats 

 of the coast long before they reach the sea, and the ten- 

 dency to a smaller amount of snow and rainfall year by 

 year is observable. There can be little doubt that in 

 former ages, such streams as this flood represents used 

 to be the normal condition, and the country was as well 

 watered as it now is in the southern portion of Chili. 

 The numerous dry water courses cut deep into the sand- 

 stone hills, and running in all directions and in channels 

 many leagues in length from the Copiapo river-bed, suf- 



