We found one creek, at the head of which there was a trickling rill (the first we had seen) of brackish water.
Here the tide compelled us to wait several hours; and in the interval I walked some miles into the interior.

The plain as usual consisted of gravel, mingled with soil resembling chalk in appearance, but very different from it in nature.

From the softness of these materials it was worn into many gulleys.

There was not a tree, and, excepting the guanaco, which stood on the hilltop a watchful sentinel over its herd, scarcely an animal or a bird.

All was stillness and desolation.