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

252 APPENDIX. extending from it to the shore. Between the two is a bay, hut scarcely affording anchorage. The coast line is partly a rocky and partly a sandy beach ; in-shore are hOls about fourteen hundred feet in height, inclining gradually toward the coast. N. 41° W., twenty miles from Asia Island, is Chilca Point; it is about three hundred feet in its highest part, has several rises on it, and terminates in a steep cUfF, with a small flat rock close off it. The valley of Chilca hes a league to the southward of the point, and the harbour of the same name half a league to the northward. This is a snug cove, but very confined ; anchorage is good in any part of it, and landing tolerable ; there is a small village at the head of the bay, but no information could be obtained from the inhabitants about Chilca, for they deserted their huts on our arrival. From Chilca the coast forms a bend to about the Valley of Lierin, off which are the Pachacamac Islands. The northern is the largest, half a mile in length, and about a cable's length broad ; the next but one to it is the most remarkable, being quite Hke a sugar- loaf, perfectly rounded at the top : the others are mere rocks, and not visible at any distance. At the northern end of these islands lies a small reef, even with the water's edge : the group run nearly parallel to the coast, in a N.W. and S.E. direction, and are about a league in extent. There is no danger on their outer side, but towards the shore the water is shoal, which causes a long swell, that at times must break. Between these islands and the Morro Solar is a sandy beach, with moderately high land a short distance from the sea. The Morro Solar is a remarkable cluster of hOls, situated on a sandy plain ; when seen from the southward it has the appear- ance of an island in the shape of a quoin, sloping to the westward, and faUing abruptly on its in-shore side ; facing the sea it termi- nates in a steep cliff, and has a sandy bay on each side of it. Off the point of the southern sand bay is an islet with some rocks lying about it, and off the point of the northern sand bay is a reef of rocks of about a cable's length ; round this reef, on the north side of the Morro, is the town and road of ChoriUos. The town of ChoriUos, built on the chff, at the foot of one of the slopes of the Morro Solar, is used chiefly as a bathing-place for the inhabitants of Lima, and during a revolution its road is filled with the shipping from Callao ; though it is an exceedingly bad place for them : the bottom is a hard sand, with patches of hard stony clay