appearance as they spin along before a S.E. wind, admirably described by Tschudi in his valuable Sketches of Travel in Peru. These extraordinary pillars, which constantly change both their form and position, and complete the perplexity of the traveller, are usually semi-circular, 8 or 10 feet high, and from 20 to 50 feet wide, but occasionally they are seen 50 feet in height, when their diameter is about 150 feet. They are of most frequent occurrence in the hot season, when the parched sand obeys the slightest impulse of the atmosphere, whereas in winter, owing to the deposition of a fine penetrating dew (garua), which all along the coast of Peru supplies the place of rain, which is never seen, the sand increases in weight, and the basis of the column is solidified, so to speak, by the moisture absorbed. Between Port d'Islay and Arequipa, the medanos are first encountered about 18 miles inland, or nearly half-way across the sand-barren.
In the dells near the harbour volcanic ashes are occasionally found at certain spots, whereas they are never discovered further inland, nor near the volcano of Arequipa, which since the memory of man has never been known to be in a state of activity, and whose beautiful cone, not unlike that of Ometepec in Nicaragua, seems to be densely wooded up to the very summit. Apparently these are the remains of former eruptions of a neighbouring volcano, which have
been borne towards the coast by the prevailing winds. The ashes themselves have no saline constituents, and are used by the natives in the manufacture of sun-dried clay-bricks (adobes), the quality of which they materially improve.
We made an excursion to a churchyard in the vicinity of d'Islay, where the skulls of some half a hundred human beings lay exposed to view. They all seemed to have been bleached by exposure, and were in good preservation, so that on many might still be discovered heavy heads of hair. The eyes had shrivelled up into the skull, and were by no means gleaming and crystal-like as is alleged of those found in Indian graves, and offered for sale to strangers. These so-called "crystallized human eyes," of which an Italian curiosity dealer of Arica possessed one or two sacks-full, belong to a species of mollusca (Loligo gigas), and were used by the Indians to adorn their dead. To this circumstance must be attributed the great number that are to be found in the graves in the neighbourhood of Arica.
We continued to coast along during the entire night. The number of passengers, especially of those on the "'tween decks," had again increased. Among the late arrivals was an Austrian, a Tyrolese, from Iquique, who was travelling into the interior of Peru. This man, seduced by dazzling promises, had in 1856 emigrated to Peru with 293 of his fellow-countrymen, and after two years of the most terrible hardships and privations, at last succeeded in finding employment at the salt mines of Iquique. He was now
earning 3 dols. a day (12s. 6d.), and was on his way to fetch his family away from the colony of Pozúzu, and taking them with him to the scene of his labours. That none of his countrymen did not follow him was, as he explained to us, in consequence of one of the colonists, "a half student," dissuading them from doing so, and himself leading them to try their luck at another spot, where unfortunately they had to battle with want in its severest form. I have rarely seen any man so excited and agitated at the sound of his native tongue as this hearty specimen of the sons of the Alps, when I addressed him "in good Austrian," and shook him by the hand. The reader will find further on, in the account of my stay at Lima, a more full account of the Tyrolese colony at Pozúzu, its present condition and possible future.
On 23rd May, at 6 A.M., the steamer anchored off Chala, which first attained the dignity of a seaport in 1857, being intended to facilitate intercourse and increase the trade with Cuzco. Chala is the nearest harbour to the ancient capital of the Incas, 240 miles distant. Though singularly ill-adapted for a port, being, in fact, nothing but an open roadstead, Chala bids fair to become a place of some importance, so soon as the country is at peace, and a good road is constructed hence to Cuzco, so as to be able to convey with dispatch the numerous valuable products of Cuzco. When we visited it, the little settlement, barely a year old, had 212 inhabitants, in some thirty wooden huts extending along the
sandy shore. The chief exports are wool and copper, the latter being found at Chaipa and Atiquipa, nine miles N. of Chala.
The following morning, after passing the Barracoon of Pisco, a rather dangerous passage beset with low islands between Barraca Head (on Sangallan Island) and Huasco Head (a projecting headland of the mainland), we reached Pisco, also nothing but an open roadstead, the tremendous surf in which does not admit of ships approaching within two or three miles of the shore. Several years before a Mr. Wheelwright had commenced to construct a mole here, to project some hundreds of feet into the sea, so as to facilitate the loading and unloading of ships and the embarkation of passengers, but the works were still unfinished, and indeed would need to be very largely added to ere the object aimed at could possibly be obtained. On the declivity of Barraca Head sloping seaward are visible three marks in the form of crosses, which, according to tradition, were made in the sand by the pious monks of former centuries. Their size must indeed be colossal, since, though we passed from four to five miles off, the outlines of the three figures were plainly visible. Well-known as this phenomenon is to everybody, no one has ever had the curiosity to make an excursion thither from Pisco, so as to clear up the fact of their being actually the work of human hands, or, as seems more probable, simply columns of drift sand, like the medanos of Arica,
thrown into this fantastic shape by the caprice of some passing storm.