Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2- Appendix): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

APPENDIX. ggi rapaca Mountain ; the latter will probably be seen first ; they are nine mUes to the southward of the anchorage. The houses in thevillage, when first seen, have just the appearance of so many black rocks on a sandy beach. The anchorage is very tolerable, as it is sheltered from the S.W. swell by the islaind; which is surrounded by numerous small detached rocks, particularly on the N.E. and W. sides; therefore it should not be approached nearer than half a mUe. This island was once much higher ; the many cargoes of birds' dung* it has afforded have reduced it to its present low state. The landing is bad at the best time, as you have to thread your way among patches of sunken rocks ; on which the sea breaks with great violence at the fvdl and change of the moon : several boats have been knocked to pieces, and lives lost. In the summer it is a calm nearly all night, sometimes there is a light air from the land. The sea breeze sets in from the southward or south-west about ten or eleven in the forenoon ; it seldom blows fresh, but lasts imtil eight or ten at night. In the winter, calms, hazy weather, and light northerly winds are common. The only trade now to Iquique is for saltpetre ; the rich silver mines formerly worked are exhausted. The water the inhabitants use is brought from Pisagua, a small bay thirty miles to the northward, for which they pay dearly, brackish as it is. Forty houses and an old chiu-ch, situated on a bare sandy flat, without a vestige of verdure of any kind near, are the features Iquique presents ; in vain does the eye wandei for something green to rest upon — extreme desolation reigns every where, from shore to summit. No. 41. Remarks on the Coast of Peru. All the bearings are magnetic. From Point San Pedro (the south point of the bay of Nuestra Sefiora), at the distance of twenty miles, is Point Grande, the north point of the before-named bay. This point, when seen from the S.W., appears high and rounded, terminating in a low rugged * Called ' guano :' it is a valuable manure.