XVI 
DESERT COUNTRY 
371 
famous for their excellence, and are cultivated to a great 
extent. This valley is, perhaps, the most productive one north 
of Quillota : I believe it contains, including Coquimbo, 25,000 
inhabitants. The next day I returned to the Hacienda, and 
thence, together with Don Jose, to Coquimbo. 
June 2nd .—We set out for the valley of Guasco, following 
the coast-road, which was considered rather less desert than the 
other. Our first day’s ride was to a solitary house, called Yerba 
Buena, where there was pasture for our horses. The shower 
mentioned as having fallen a fortnight ago, only reached about 
half-way to Guasco ; we had, therefore, in the first part of our 
journey a most faint tinge of green, which soon faded quite 
away. Even where brightest, it was scarcely sufficient to 
remind one of the fresh turf and budding flowers of the spring 
of other countries. While travelling through these deserts one 
feels like a prisoner shut up in a gloomy court, who longs to 
see something green and to smell a moist atmosphere. 
June 3rd .—-Yerba Buena to Carizal. During the first part of 
the day we crossed a mountainous rocky desert, and afterwards 
a long deep sandy plain, strewed with broken sea-shells. There 
was very little water, and that little saline ; the whole country, 
from the coast to the Cordillera, is an uninhabited desert. I 
saw traces only of one living animal in abundance, namely, the 
shells of a Bulimus, which were collected together in extraor¬ 
dinary 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 with dew, the Guasos believe that 
they are bred from it. I have observed in other places that 
extremely dry and sterile districts, where the soil is calcareous, 
are extraordinarily favourable to 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 for our horses. 
\th .—- 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 purchase any for our horses. 
At Sauce we found a very civil old gentleman, superintending 
