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 extraordinary 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 Guascos 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.
4th. - 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,
superintendent of a copper-smelting furnace. As an especial
favour, he allowed me to purchase at a high price an armful
of dirty straw, which was all the poor horses had for supper
after their long day's journey. Few smelting-furnaces are
now at work in any part of Chile; it is found more profitable,
on account of the extreme scarcity of firewood, and from
the Chilian method of reduction being so unskilful, to ship the
ore for Swansea. The next day we crossed some mountains
to Freyrina, in the valley of Guasco. During each day's ride
further northward, the vegetation became more and more
scanty; even the great chandelier-like cactus was here
replaced by a different and much smaller species. During the
winter months, both in northern Chile and in Peru, a uniform
bank of clouds hangs, at no great height, over the Pacific.
From the mountains we had a very striking view of this
white and brilliant aerial-field, which sent arms up the
valleys, leaving islands and promontories in the same manner, as
the sea does in the Chonos archipelago and in Tierra del Fuego.
We stayed two days at Freyrina. In the valley of Guasco
there are four small towns. At the mouth there is the port, a
spot entirely desert, and without any water in the immediate
neighbourhood.
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