SECOND JOURNEY INTO THE INTERIOR. 1 65 



part, limited to a number of lichens and a few scattered tufts of grass, at 

 one place in the sides of a rather deep cavern I found a small fern grow- 

 ing in considerable profusion. By turning over a number of large detached 

 pieces of lava I procured a number of beetles, crickets, spiders, a centi- 

 pede and a scorpion, while small black lizards were not wanting. 



The basaltic escarpments and the slope below were favorite haunts 

 of the condor, and one morning, while strolling about among the latter, I 

 came upon five of these splendid birds, and was somewhat surprised at 

 their temerity. Walking up to within some forty feet of them without 

 causing any alarm, I seated myself on a rock for a few moments, when I 

 was struck with the remarkably fine subject they would make for the 

 camera, and returned to camp for that instrument which I had left behind. 

 When I returned to the place where I had left them, they had quit the 

 locality, and I never succeeded in getting a similar view of these birds at 

 such close range. 



We continued our journey along the eastern base of this basaltic table, 

 until arriving at its northern border. Beyond this there extended for 

 many miles a wide, open plain, the level surface of which for a consider- 

 able distance was interrupted only by the shallow channels of a couple of 

 dry water-courses, which unite and pass through a narrow defile in the 

 lava fields to the eastward. Pursuing as nearly as possible a direct 

 northerly course, after crossing the channels just mentioned, we ascended 

 a considerable incline and gained the summit of the broad and level plain 

 which lay beyond. As we continued our journey across the plateau-like 

 table land, with Mt. Belgrano rising on our left at a distance of some 

 fifteen or twenty miles, like a huge and solitary sentinel, from the sur- 

 rounding plain, we gradually placed the lava fields, between which we had 

 been travelling, in our rear, while in front and on our right there extended 

 a broad, open country, which seemed, within the limits of our horizon, to 

 be almost perfectly level. 



After travelling for some twenty miles across this plain, we came sud- 

 denly upon the crest of a bluff, overlooking a rather deep but narrow val- 

 ley, which, at a distance of about a mile to the northeast, opened into a 

 broad, level valley about ten miles in width, through which there mean- 

 dered a small stream. Spring Creek on the map. Descending into the 

 smaller and tributary valley, we camped at the bottom alongside a beauti- 

 ful spring of most excellent water, where there was an abundance of grass 



