CHAPTER XI 



ALONG THE STREAM OF DEATH 



•E learned that the diied-iip stream-bed, at 

 whose junction with the harrnnca stream 

 -sve camped, was Ivnown by the sinister 

 name of El Arroi/o del Mmrte, — The 

 Dry Stream of Death, — and the name was well given ; 

 not, however, because of any lack of life along its 

 sinuous course, even during this dry season of the 

 year. In years past, its winding stream-bed was much 

 used as a short-cut trail, and mule-trains of fifty and 

 a hundred animals often passed and repassed through 

 it. At the beginning of the rainy season, somewhere 

 u}) on the volcano's slope the water would collect, 

 held back bv debris, until the great weight broke all 

 barriers and the Hood jjoured, like an avalanche, down 

 the ari^oyo, carrying away men and animals, like mere 

 chips in its seething waters. Hence the appellation 

 del Jfiierfe. 



But the rainy season was yet far off, and we found 

 the recesses and dark defiles of this dry waterway a 

 most delightful place for exploration . After the summer 

 rains cease, the annual torrent dwindles to a mere 

 trickle, and even this at last filters through the porous 



- «4 228 ^ 



