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 12, 1835.
We anchored in the port of Iquique, in latitude 20 degrees 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 mountainsides 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.
Pages:
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709