This artificial disfigurement of the skull has its origin in the peculiar customs of several Indian races of both North and South America, of mechanically altering the form of the cranium in the new-born infant. Of the difference in point of beauty of the different Indian races along the west coast of North America, a clear indication is afforded by the profile of the head of a native of Puget Sound, Oregon territory, for which I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Ried of Valparaiso, he having been presented with it in 1856, by the medical officer of an American man-of-war. Here, in strong contrast with the oblong form of the cranium of an Indian from the neighbourhood of Arica, it appears that the skull has been flattened transversely, by pressure between two boards.
At first one is disposed to attribute the squeezed-in appearance of the head, remarked in different Indian races, here lengthened in an unsightly degree, there hideously flattened, to some freak of nature; but more accurate investigations leave no doubt that the deformity in question, in whatever form, is the result of pressure artificially applied, and that
this displacement of the brain is not confined to individuals, but is characteristic of entire tribes, yet without any sensible diminution of the intellectual faculties, or morbidity in their exercise.
The valley of Azapa, three Spanish leagues (nine miles English) distant from Arica, is very fertile, and a good soil, but badly supplied with water. However, at an expense of a few millions of dollars, a communication might easily be established with the waters of the river Arica, the expense of which would be amply repaid by the increased productive power thus given to the valley. Sugar-cane, vintage-grape, oranges, pine-apples, olives, and vegetables of every description, could forthwith be raised, and advantageously disposed of at Arica.
Among the Germans resident in Arica, we formed the acquaintance of M. Colmann, a merchant, and Consul for Chile, as also of Dr. Mittendorf, the latter of whom is physician to the Railway Company here. By the latter gentleman we were told that cuticular diseases, dysentery, and intermittent fevers were the most common ailments, but that on the whole the climate of Arica is healthy, and that many cases of illness were solely attributable to the irregular, licentious mode of life of the natives. Although it hardly ever rains, yet during the summer season (January to March), when the snows begin to melt in the interior, and tremendous falls of rain occur on the Cordillera, the beds of the rivers become torrents, wheeling along vast volumes of water to the sea, and partly
sinking into the soil, so that, at a depth of two or three feet, one comes upon water, or, at all events, moisture, while the surface remains burned to a cake. A little canalization of the river-bed, and damming up the water, so as to have a permanent reservoir, would not merely secure a better supply of water, but would most beneficially influence the salubrity of the neighbourhood. The river dries up entirely every year in the months of July and August, during which accordingly occur the largest number of cases of sickness, and it seems the more necessary that measures of some sort should be at once taken to control the water, as otherwise there is reason to fear that unless artificial dykes and dams be constructed, the bed of the river will gradually be sanded up, when the whole district will be worse off for water than ever; since with each successive year's floods, as they dash down from the mountains, a perceptible falling off in quantity has been remarked, so that whereas ten years ago the bed of the river was full for four or five months together, at present it is rarely full so long as two months in all.
On 22nd May, we entered the little harbour of Port d'Islay, the access to which is very difficult. The settlement itself stands on a steep rock, 150 feet high, descending almost perpendicularly into the sea on all sides, so that the only landing-place is a mole, which communicates with the village above by an iron ladder. The well-known traveller, Count Castelnau, who in the course of a scientific expedition through South America visited this port in 1848, prophesied a splendid
future for it; but I do not believe that its commerce has materially increased since then.
The sole claim to consideration of Port d'Islay consists in its proximity to Arequipa, a city of 40,000 inhabitants, and the variety of valuable natural products which abound in that fertile section of country, from which, however, the port is separated by a sand-barren, 36 miles in width and 120 in length, the city of Arequipa itself being 7500 feet above the sea, at the foot of the volcano of the same name,[126] and amid a magnificent scenery.
The dreary waste between Port d'Islay and Arequipa is continually swept by drift sand, which, by constantly obstructing the road, renders travelling thither absolutely unsafe, and indeed frequently dangerous to life. For the unfortunate who misses his way amid these wastes is lost beyond all possibility of succour. The wandering sand-columns or medanos,[127] formed of drift sand, present a singular