40 



PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS : NARRATIVE. 



Once on the opposite side our course lay for several miles up the nar- 

 row valley of a small watercourse, dry throughout the year, save in the 

 early spring or for a few hours immediately following the heavy rains that 

 do occasionally, though too rarely, visit this region. On our left was a 

 low plain covered with a thin sheet of lava, the source of which could be 

 seen in two small extinct craters rising somewhat above the surface of the 

 plain and situated at a distance of some two or three miles to the west- 

 ward of the road. On our right was a somewhat precipitous bluff extend- 

 ing from the bottom of the narrow valley to the surface of the broad and 

 level plain some four hundred feet above. By following the course of 

 this stream we finally emerged upon the broad level surface of the latter 

 which lay spread out before us as far as the eye could reach ; its surface to 

 the north and east seemingly unbroken by either elevation or depression, 

 while to the westward there appeared in the distance the escarpment of a 

 second terrace with a northerly and southerly trend, considerably elevated 

 above the surface of the plain over which we were travelling. 



After travelling for several miles in a northwesterly direction across this 

 plain, we came suddenly to the brink of a great depression, some three 

 hundred feet in depth and eight or ten miles in width. Owing to the 

 southeasterly slope of the surface there was no indication of the pres- 

 ence of this depression until we arrived upon the crest of the escarp- 

 ment surrounding it. At the bottom was a small salt lake called 

 Laguna Leona (lioness lake) by the natives. In the spring and early 

 summer months this forms a considerable body of water, but at the time 

 of our visit in mid-autumn the volume of water had been greatly di- 

 minished through surface evaporation, aided perhaps by subterranean 

 drainage, and there remained only the two ponds, the larger of which 

 did not exceed a mile and a half in greatest diameter, shown in Fig. 2. 

 The photograph was taken from a point about half way down the side 

 of the bluff and does not do justice to either the height or abruptness 

 of the latter. The trail zigzagged down the side of the bluff, which 

 was so steep that Senor Villegrand had the horse taken out of the 

 cart and the latter was taken down by hand, all lending their aid to 

 the operation. At the bottom we followed along between the foot of 

 the cliff and the shore of the lake, passing within sixty yards of a guanaco 

 as he stood on a projecting bench and gazed at us as we rode past, with 

 such temerity that I refrained from trying my Colt's new navy revolver. 



