Five Leagues Higher Up Stands Freyrina, A
Long Straggling Village, With Decent Whitewashed Houses.
Again, Ten Leagues Further Up Ballenar Is Situated, And Above
This Guasco Alto, A Horticultural Village, Famous For Its Dried
Fruit.
On a clear day the view up the valley is very fine; the
straight opening terminates in the far-distant snowy Cordillera;
on each side an infinity of crossing-lines are blended
together in a beautiful haze.
The foreground is singular
from the number of parallel and step-formed terraces; and
the included strip of green valley, with its willow-bushes, is
contrasted on both hands with the naked hills. That the
surrounding country was most barren will be readily believed,
when it is known that a shower of rain had not fallen during
the last thirteen months. The inhabitants heard with the
greatest envy of the rain at Coquimbo; from the appearance
of the sky they had hopes of equally good fortune, which, a
fortnight afterwards, were realized. I was at Copiapo at the
time; and there the people, with equal envy, talked of the
abundant rain at Guasco. After two or three very dry years,
perhaps with not more than one shower during the whole
time, a rainy year generally follows; and this does more harm
than even the drought. The rivers swell, and cover with
gravel and sand the narrow strips of ground, which alone are
fit for cultivation. The floods also injure the irrigating
ditches. Great devastation had thus been caused three years
ago.
June 8th. - We rode on to Ballenar, which takes its name
from Ballenagh in Ireland, the birthplace of the family of
O'Higgins, who, under the Spanish government, were presidents
and generals in Chile. As the rocky mountains on each
hand were concealed by clouds, the terrace-like plains gave
to the valley an appearance like that of Santa Cruz in
Patagonia. After spending one day at Ballenar I set out, on the
10th, for the upper part of the valley of Copiapo. We rode
all day over an uninteresting country. I am tired of repeating
the epithets barren and sterile. These words, however,
as commonly used, are comparative; I have always applied
them to the plains of Patagonia, which can boast of spiny
bushes and some tufts of grass; and this is absolute fertility,
as compared with northern Chile. Here again, there are not
many spaces of two hundred yards square, where some little
bush, cactus or lichen, may not be discovered by careful
examination; and in the soil seeds lie dormant ready to
spring up during the first rainy winter. In Peru real deserts
occur over wide tracts of country. In the evening we
arrived at a valley, in which the bed of the streamlet was
damp: following it up, we came to tolerably good water.
During the night, the stream, from not being evaporated
and absorbed so quickly, flows a league lower down than
during the day. Sticks were plentiful for firewood, so that
it was a good place to bivouac for us; but for the poor animals
there was not a mouthful to eat.
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