In the valleys there was scarcely sufficient water for any irrigation; and the intermediate land was quite bare, not supporting even goats.

In the spring, after the winter showers, a thin pasture rapidly springs up, and cattle are then driven down from the Cordillera to graze for a short time.

It is curious to observe how the seeds of the grass and other plants seem to accommodate themselves, as if by an acquired habit, to the quantity of rain which falls upon different parts of this coast.

One shower far northward at Copiapo produces as great an effect on the vegetation, as two at Guasco, and three or four in this district.

At Valparaiso a winter so dry as greatly to injure the pasture, would at Guasco produce the most unusual abundance.