sleep. Lindor had fallen off his mule before we could reach him when the pack train stopped. There was still one long and hard day before we could hope to get to pasture and water. The next day's trail led across a series of ravines that seemed endless. By midday we reached the head of the Chacarilla canyon and tried to go directly down over the talus slopes; but the boulders were so huge, and the going so perilous for the
 | An image should appear at this position in the text. To use the entire page scan as a placeholder, edit this page and replace "{{missing image}}" with "{{raw image|Isaiah Bowman - Desert Trails of Atacama (1924).pdf/45}}". Otherwise, if you are able to provide the image then please do so. For guidance, see Wikisource:Image guidelines and Help:Adding images. |  |
Fig. 11—Wind-rippled sand dune on the border of the Salar de Atacama, near Soncor. Compare with Figure 4, page 17. See Figure 1 for location.
mules, that we climbed again to the rim and continued the wearisome process of skirting the entire border of the huge amphitheater that forms the head of the canyon. What made the process particularly tantalizing was the sight of green pas- ture and a pool of water at the foot of the gorge wall. But the thousand feet of descent was more difficult than the miles of circuit we were making to the springs of Caya.
The Oasis of Caya
The oasis of Caya has an elevation of 11,500 fect. It is merely a camp site, not a place of settlement. In this respect it is like a number of other places indicated upon the I[quique sheet of the American Geographical Society's Millionth Map
