For A Time Such
Scenery Is Sublime, But This Feeling Cannot Last, And Then It
Becomes Uninteresting.
We bivouacked at the foot of the
"primera linea," or the first line of the partition of waters.
The
Streams, however, on the east side do not flow to the
Atlantic, but into an elevated district, in the middle of which
there is a large saline, or salt lake; thus forming a little
Caspian Sea at the height, perhaps, of ten thousand feet. Where
we slept, there were some considerable patches of snow, but
they do not remain throughout the year. The winds in these
lofty regions obey very regular laws every day a fresh
breeze blows up the valley, and at night, an hour or two after
sunset, the air from the cold regions above descends as
through a funnel. This night it blew a gale of wind, and the
temperature must have been considerably below the freezing-
point, for water in a vessel soon became a block of ice. No
clothes seemed to oppose any obstacle to the air; I suffered
very much from the cold, so that I could not sleep, and in
the morning rose with my body quite dull and benumbed.
In the Cordillera further southward, people lose their lives
from snow-storms; here, it sometimes happens from another
cause. My guide, when a boy of fourteen years old, was
passing the Cordillera with a party in the month of May;
and while in the central parts, a furious gale of wind arose,
so that the men could hardly cling on their mules, and stones
were flying along the ground. The day was cloudless, and
not a speck of snow fell, but the temperature was low. It is
probable that the thermometer could not have stood very
many degrees below the freezing-point, but the effect on
their bodies, ill protected by clothing, must have been in
proportion to the rapidity of the current of cold air. The gale
lasted for more than a day; the 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 29th - 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, [4] 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 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 Beagle's 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. This poorness of the vegetation is owing to the
quantity of saline matter with which the soil is impregnated.
The Port consists of an assemblage of miserable little hovels,
situated at the foot of a sterile plain. At present, as the
river contains water enough to reach the sea, the inhabitants
enjoy the advantage of having fresh water within a mile and
a half. On the beach there were large piles of merchandise,
and the little place had an air of activity. In the evening
I gave my adios, with a hearty good-will, to my companion
Mariano Gonzales, with whom I had ridden so many leagues
in Chile. The next morning the Beagle sailed for Iquique.
July 12th. - We anchored in the port of Iquique, in lat.
20 degs. 12', on the coast of Peru. The town contains about a
thousand inhabitants, and stands on a little plain of sand at
the foot of a great wall of rock, 2000 feet in height, here
forming the coast. The whole is utterly desert. A light
shower of rain falls only once in very many years; and the
ravines consequently are filled with detritus, and the
mountain-sides covered by piles of fine white sand, even to a
height of a thousand feet. During this season of the year a
heavy bank of clouds, stretched over the ocean, seldom rises
above the wall of rocks on the coast. The aspect of the place
was most gloomy; the little port, with its few vessels, and
small group of wretched houses, seemed overwhelmed and out of
all proportion with the rest of the scene.
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