XVI 
EL BRAMADOR 
3 §S 
men began to lose their strength, and the mules would not move 
onwards. My guide’s brother tried to return, but he perished, 
and his body was found two years afterwards, lying by the side 
of his mule near the road, with the bridle still in his hand. Two 
other men in the party lost their fingers and toes ; and out of 
two hundred mules and thirty cows, only fourteen mules escaped 
alive. Many years ago the whole of a large party are supposed 
to have perished from a similar cause, but their bodies to this 
day have never been discovered. The union of a cloudless sky, 
low temperature, and a furious gale of wind, must be, I should 
think, in all parts of the world an unusual occurrence. 
June 29 th .—We gladly travelled down the valley to our 
former night’s lodging, and thence to near the Agua amarga. 
On July 1st we reached the valley of Copiapo. The smell of 
the fresh clover was quite delightful, after the scentless air of 
the dry sterile Despoblado. Whilst staying in the town I 
heard an account from several of the inhabitants, of a hill in 
the neighbourhood which they called “ El Bramador,”—the 
roarer or bellower. I did not at the time pay sufficient 
attention to the account; but, as far as I understood, the hill 
was covered by sand, and the noise was produced only when 
people, by ascending it, put the sand in motion. The same 
circumstances are described in detail on the authority of Seetzen 
and Ehrenberg, 1 as the cause of the sounds which have been 
heard by many travellers on Mount Sinai near the Red Sea. 
One person with whom I conversed had himself heard the 
noise ; he described it as very surprising; and he distinctly 
stated that, although he could not understand how it was 
caused, yet it was necessary to set the sand rolling down the 
acclivity. A horse walking over dry and coarse sand causes 
a peculiar chirping noise from the friction of the particles ; a 
circumstance which I several times noticed on the coast of 
Brazil. 
Three days afterwards I heard of the Beagles arrival at the 
Port, distant eighteen leagues from the town. There is very 
little land cultivated down the valley ; its wide expanse supports 
a wretched wiry grass, which even the donkeys can hardly eat. 
1 Edinburgh Phil. Journ . Jan. 1830, p. 74; and April 1830, p. 258. Also 
Daubeny on Volcanoes, p. 438 ; and Bengal Journ. vol. vii. p. 324. 
