[13] “Versuch einer Entwicklungsgeschichte der Pflanzenwelt.”
[14] The heights are certainly incorrect. The base of the hill of Amancaes is nearly seven hundred feet above sea-level, and Mr. Nation states that the two localities mentioned by Mr. Cruikshank are at about the same elevation.
[15] Two small Chilian wooden ships, the Esmeralda, of 850 tons, mounting eight guns, commanded by Arturo Prat, and the Covadonga, of 412 tons, with two guns, commanded by Condell, were engaged in the blockade of Iquique, when, on the 21st of May, 1879, they were attacked by the Peruvian ironclad Independencia, of 2004 tons, mounting 18 (chiefly heavy Armstrong) guns, commanded by J. G. Moore, and the monitor Huascar, of 1130 tons, mounting two 300-pounder Armstrong turret guns, besides two deck guns, under Miguel Grau, the most skilful and enterprising of the Peruvian commanders. The Chilian captains resolved on a desperate defence. After maintaining for two hours the fight against the Huascar, Arturo Prat resolved on the attempt to board his adversary. Bringing his ship alongside, he sprang on the deck of the Huascar; but the ships were separated at once, and two men only fell along with him, while the Esmeralda went to the bottom with her crew of 180 men, of whom several were picked up by the boats of the Huascar. The Independencia, following the little Covadonga, ran on the rocks in the shallows south of Iquique, and became a total wreck; while the Covadonga, though shattered by her enemy’s guns, was able to reach Autofogasta. The heroism of the Chilian commanders saved their country, and at the critical moment changed the fortune of the war.
[16] In the preface to his “Florula Atacamensis,” Dr. Philippi, who has explored this region more thoroughly than any other traveller, states that on the range of coast hills between the Pan de Azucar (lat. 26° 8′ south) and Miguel Diaz (lat. 24° 36′) the fogs, called in Peru garua, or garruga, deposit during a great part of the year some moisture which occasionally takes the form of fine rain, such as is familiarly known to occur on the hills near Lima. He remarks as singular the fact that the same phenomenon is not observed on the coast north or south of those limits. From more recent observations, it would appear that this is not strictly true as regards the higher coast hills near Coquimbo, but it seems to hold as regards the tract of coast to the northward, between the neighbourhood of Taltal and that of Iquique, a distance of about four degrees of latitude. It may be that the coast hills are lower here than further south, and that as the desert region inland rises very gradually, and has a higher temperature inland than near the coast, the formation of fog is prevented. Whatever be the cause, the absence of fog would go far to account for the utter sterility of this region.
[17] The four species of Encelia described in De Candolle’s “Prodromus” appear to me to be but slightly modified forms of a single species. Since the publication of that work, several other and quite distinct species have been ranked under the same generic name.
[18] While botanizing in the Tajo de Ronda, the singular cleft which cuts through the rocky hill on which the town is built, I was once for some time in positive danger. The boys, having espied me, assembled on the bridge that crosses the cleft, some three hundred feet above my head, and commenced a regular fire of stones, that drove me to take shelter under an overhanging rock until, being tired of the sport, they turned their attentions elsewhere.
[19] One of the difficulties felt by all students of geographical distribution arises from the imperfect or careless indications given both in books and in herbaria, and this is more felt in regard to South America than as to any other part of the world. A very large proportion of the earlier collections bear simply the label “Brazil,” forgetting that the area is as great as that of Europe. In other cases local names of places, not to be found on maps or in gazetteers, embarrass the student and weary his patience. It is mainly from Darwin that naturalists have learned that geographical distribution is the chief key to the past history of the earth.
[20] The last season of excessive rainfall was that of 1877. I have seen no complete returns, but it appears that the rain of that year commenced in Central Chili in February, a very rare phenomenon; that more than six inches of rain fell in April, of which, at Santiago, four inches fell in twenty-four hours. More heavy rain fell in May, and finally in July a succession of storms flooded large districts, destroying property and life, the fall for the month being more than fourteen inches at Valparaiso. Much interesting information respecting the climate of Chili will be found in a work by Don B. Vicuña Mackenna, “Ensayo Historico sobre el Clima de Chile” (Valparaiso: 1877), from which I have borrowed the above-mentioned particulars.
[21] I believe that in the column for rainfall at Punta Arenas, snow has not been taken into account.
[22] The recent untimely death of this valuable official is deplored by all classes in Chili.