vated tracts,[1] Cucholrache, Catarpe, Tambillo, Silo, and Quito, where fruit is grown. Extending to a point three or four leagues below are Sdélar, Larache, Yaye, Pacsar, Chécar, Séquitor, Coyo, Tulur, Beter, Poconche, Soleér and Ciicuter ona ridge of sand, and Tevinguicha on the border of a brackish swamp due to seepage from the piedmont deposits. Each tract or village represents some natural advantage. Here a group of algarrobo trees feed on the ground water and supply an abundance of algarrobo fruit. There a clump of chafiar trees supplies nuts for the delectable chanar meal. On the edge of the swamp of Tevinguicha is pasture to be rented to the cat- tle drivers from across the cordillera. The soil is sandy at Cii- cuter, but it has no harmful salts and if watered but twice a year yields good crops. At Catarpe are warm terraces easy to irrigate, hence beautiful fruit orchards.
A common plant upon which the Indians hereabout depend for fuel is the green chilea bush, used for firewood and for cover to the earthen walls that border the alfalfa fields. It grows rank where there is abundant water. There is much of it at Calama, at Aguas Blancas, and on the alluvial fan at San Pedro. Near the water also is a species of acacia, the so- called sauce (willow), of which some fifty or sixty varieties are said to abound in the neighborhood. We saw this tree at Poma also. So abundant is the pingo-pingo (Fig. 77) south of Ata- cama that its name has been given to a range of mountains.[2]
San Pedro de Atacama is a city of arrieros (muleteers). Unlike its tiny neighbors it draws upon outside resources. The additional population which it supports requires food in amounts greater than the land can yield, [ts wants are more varied. Through it also flows a commerce between the moun- tain peoples and the outside world. At San Pedro we should therefore expect trading customs and movement of population quite distinct from the feeble movements between the tiny oases. From their valley homes and upland pastures the
- ↑ The spelling of these place names was supplied by Señior Arturo Alvarez of San Pedro de Atacama and differs in a few cases from a similar list of names given by Alejandro Bertratul, op. cit., pp. 269-271.
- ↑ See the Atacama sheet of the American Geographical Society’s Millionth Map of Hispanic America.
