THE CONDOR AT HOME. 93 



conceals a host of long, slender, needle-like spines, 

 that penetrate the flesh, easily break, and are most 

 difficult to extract. Unfortunately, the living specimen 

 which I sent to Kew did not survive the journey. 



At about three o'clock it was necessary to think of 

 returning. Several precious plants had been passed 

 on the way and remained to be collected, and it was 

 only prudent to return to our quarters before night, 

 which here falls so abruptly. Soon after we started 

 along the descending track, a whirring sound over- 

 head caused us to look up. Two magnificent condors 

 swooped down from the upper region, and, wheeling 

 round about forty feet above our heads, described a 

 half circle, and, having satisfied their curiosity, 

 soared again to a vast height, till they seemed mere 

 black specks in the sky. Meanwhile my horse, fresh 

 after the long halt, and apparently delighted at the 

 prospect of returning to pleasanter quarters, broke 

 into a gallop, and throughout the way it cost me 

 some trouble to restrain his impatience. 



As we drew near Chicla, there being yet half an 

 hour of daylight, we dismounted and dismissed our 

 guide with the horses, thus being able to secure 

 several plants not seen elsewhere. One of these was 

 a solitary plant of the common potato, growing in a 

 wild place among dwarf bushes near the stream. I 

 do not, however, attach any importance to the fact 

 as evidence on the disputed question of the true 

 home of a plant which in South America has been 

 cultivated from remote antiquity. The valley of the 

 Rimac has doubtless been a frequented highway since 

 long before the Spanish conquest, and, as we know, 



