imposed by drought. As always, there are a few who prosper in spite of the ill wind. If the pastures fail, live stock must be sold, and the dealers ship south to the nitrate ports or north to the large coast towns of Peru, where there is always a demand. Their business is most active when it is dry or rather at the be- ginning of the dry period. Also, if transport by land routes becomes too expensive, the small traders turn to the sea routes, and the carriers have an increased business. But so far as I have been able to learn dry years favor only a few scat- tered individuals.
A Primitive Fisher Folk of Chile
Among native inhabitants the Changos are the only ones that sccm to have had a regular dependence upon the re- sources of the coast in the belt of mist on the coast of Chile. They are a wretched tribe of Indians, primitive fisher folk of the desert coast, that early attracted the notice of Spanish writers. Lozano Machuca stated in 1581 that there were 400 Uros or Changos Indians, fishers and heathen, in the Bay of Atacama (Cobija). They are particularly interesting because fishing folk are extremely rare among Andean populations.[1] They depended largely upon the sea for a living and in their dependence upon it resembled the primitive fisher tribes of Tierra del Fuego. Like the latter, they were necessarily no- madic, with canoes of sealskin and household goods limited to fishing gear, a few shells, and an indispensable water bottle formed usually of the stomach of the catfish. One of their chief settlements was Paposo, situated where the configuration of the coast appears to lead to an unusual amount of fog and like- wise of vegetation. During the winter, when the sea is rough and the heavier cloud on the Coast Range produces morc abundant vegetation, they were temporarily diverted from their maritime pursuits and hunted the guanaco that comes down from the cordillera. Since the Spanish conquest they have also acquired small flocks of goats and a few cattle that are pastured on the seaward slopes of the Coast Range.
- ↑ Formerly the Uros of the Titicaca basin represented a pure type of fishing population. They still fish and hunt in the recd swamps about the border of Titicaca and those of the upper Desaguadero north and northwest of Ancoaqui.
