476 CHILE. 



The line of the track is strewn with the skeletons of mules 

 and cattle which have perished on the journey. Very large 

 numbers of cattle are constantly driven over the Pass, though 

 it is 12,500 feet in height, from the Argentine Republic, and 

 the Chilians, in exchange for this meat, supply corn to the 

 Argentiners, which, however, of course goes round by sea. 



The cattle can find little or no food on the journey over the 

 Pass, and many die on the way ; many others are obliged to 

 be killed, and men occupying houses on the route buy the 

 disabled ones, and make a profit by drying the meat. 



At one spot an unfortunate mule had fallen from a zigzag 

 path down a steep slope, and lay at the bottom with one of 

 its legs broken, and the bone protruding for six inches. My 

 guide went up and kicked the pDor beast, which was lying 

 down, till it got up on three legs, but only to see if it was 

 of any good, and he laughed at it without the slightest feeling 

 of compassion. I would have given a great deal to have been 

 able to put it out of its misery, but I did not want the man to 

 see that I had no pistol with me, and I was, therefore, obliged 

 to let the animal lie. 



There was absolutely no food, yet the man said the mule 

 would live eight days. There were plenty of Condors wheel- 

 ing about in different directions, but they took not the slightest 

 notice of the beast. I was told that they never approach until 

 an animal is actually dead. The drover who took the pack 

 off the mule had, no doubt, never given a thought to taking 

 the trouble to kill the animal. 



There were several patches of snow which were crossed by 

 the track close to the summit {Ciimbre), but there was no 

 snow on the track at the actual summit itself. 



I was told that when highway murders were committed on 

 the Pass, the traveller attacked was usually lassoed and dragged 

 off his horse, and some way away from the track ; the assailant, 

 as soon as his man is noosed, putting spurs to his horse, — a 

 very unpleasant mode of death. The lasso, however, is occa- 

 sionally used on human beings with far different intent. I 

 saw a young girl going out on foot to milk the cows, at a farm 

 at some distance down the Pass, playfully lasso a young man 

 with whom she had been flirting, catching him round the neck 

 as neatly as possible, just as he was going away. 



I rode a horse on the journey whilst my guide rode a mule. 

 We made a detour on our return journey in order that I should 

 see a remarkable chasm in the rock called " El salto del 

 soldado " (The Soldier's Leap). We had to traverse an old 

 and neglected route for some distance. In one place the 

 hill-side had slipped somewhat, and the track was gone, but 



