THE ATACAMA DESERT. 
21 I 
trenched over ; in a short time, the very spot on which the 
rubbish was burnt, produced an abundant and very luxuriant 
crop of Sisymbrium trio, and that on a part of the garden where I 
never remember to have seen it before.” It would seem, there- 
fore, that the problem has not yet been altogether solved. 
George Henslow. 
[Since this article was in type, a correspondence concerning the growth of 
wheat found in Egyptian tombs has appeared in one or two of the daily papers. 
^Ve hope to publish in our next issue some remarks on this subject by Mr. Car- 
ruihers. — E d. N.N.'\ 
A SUSSEX BEECH WOOD. 
The little hill, falling in steep degrees. 
Is half made bare, half hid in last year’s leaves 
By fitful gusts of summer wind, that weaves 
The liquid air through green interstices. 
Here foliage of the many-branched trees 
Almost across the faint horizon reaches. 
And burnished stems of elfin-haunted beeches 
Above the crest show their wind-knotted knees — 
There, outlined dark, the rolling Sussex weald 
And far off sky, through arches yellow green, — 
Depth beyond depth of blueness — is revealed, 
A hazy land seen sunlit boughs between. 
So pleasant is the place that all are fain 
Long thus to linger gazing on the plain. 
R. C. P. 
THE ATACAMA DESERT. 
T the extreme east of this desert there is a valley about 
thirty-five miles long and six miles broad, in Bolivia, 
surrounded by a range of mountains, part of the Mid 
Andes. In this valley, near the Ascoton and Inca 
mountain, there is a large lake of fresh water. Near to this 
there is a spring of hot water that flows into the large lake. 
This is a source of comfort to the numerous fish that abound in 
the large lake, but it is often a disastrous trap for the flamingoes 
which come in large numbers from the lower lands of Bolivia. 
These flamingoes are red in plumage, with very long legs, and 
have their beaks twisted in a curious fashion. After successfully 
fishing the warmer portion of the lake they at night-fall take 
their rest in the shallow water at the edge. So long as they 
select the warm spot all is w'ell with them, but frequently numbers 
settle down in places beyond the influence of the warm stream. 
