the square holes.
The government has farmed the salinas to a private individual in Huacho,
who keeps on the spot an overseer with the necessary number of
laborers. This establishment is an inexhaustible source of wealth, and
it can only be destroyed by a violent earthquake. In the bay on which
the salinas border there is very convenient and secure anchoring
ground, where coasters are constantly lying, ready to receive the
salt, and convey it to any Peruvian or Chilean port. Most of the
laborers employed in the salinas suffer from diseases of the skin and
rheumatism. Water and provisions have to be brought from Huacho. The
Indians, when they come from the mountains to convey salt, never take
their llamas to the salinas. They go straight to Huacho, where the
animals are loaded at the great depots. Each llama carries the weight
of one hundred pounds, which, however, is not, like ordinary burthens,
laid on the bare back of the animal--beneath it is placed a layer of
thick woollen cloth, called a _jerga_.

The road southward from the Salinas runs, for the distance of nine
leagues, through deep sand, chiefly along the sea-coast, and is bounded
on the east by the _Lomas de Lachay_. Here flocks of strand snipes and
flamingoes fly constantly before the traveller, as if to direct his
course. In the _pescadores_ (fishermen's huts), five leagues from the
Salinas, brackish water and broiled fish may be obtained, and sometimes
even clover, which is brought hither, from the distance of several
miles, to feed the hungry horses. From the pescadores the road crosses
steep sand-hills, which rise from three to four hundred feet high, and
fall with a declivity of more than sixty degrees towards the sea. The
road leads along the side of these hills, and, where the ground is not
firm, it is exceedingly dangerous. On a false step of the horse the
ground yields beneath his hoof, and rolls down the declivity; but by due
care the rider can easily recover a solid footing. There is on one of
these hills a very large stone, which at a certain distance presents in
color and form a deceptious similarity to an enormous-sized seal. Almost
perpendicularly under it is a small bay, inhabited by a multitude of
seals. The dull crashing sound made by the breakers on the shore,
mingling with the howling of these animals, makes a gloomy impression on
the traveller who is passing along the height above them, and creates a
sort of shuddering sensation. The nativ