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.
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