VALLEY OF ACONCAGUA. 197 



of South America that I encountered in the course of 

 my journey. The virtuous driver of the carriage 

 which I had engaged to take me to the Resguardo 

 was actually at the door of the hotel at the appointed 

 hour, soon after sunrise ; but it availed little for my 

 object. Not a soul was stirring in the hotel ; and 

 though I made no small disturbance, it was long 

 before I could induce the lazy waiter to make his 

 appearance. I had not thought of providing my 

 breakfast overnight, and could not start without food 

 for a long day's expedition. 



At length we started on the road by the left bank 

 which I had followed on the previous evening, and, 

 the weather being again nearly perfect, I thoroughly 

 enjoyed a very charming excursion, which carried me 

 farther into the heart of the Cordillera than I had yet 

 reached. As very often happens, however, the nearer 

 one gets to the great peaks the less one is able to see 

 of them. The general outline of the slopes in the 

 inner valleys of high mountain countries is usually 

 convex, because the torrents have deepened the trench 

 between opposite slopes more quickly than subaerial 

 action has worn away the flanks ; and it is only 

 exceptionally that the summits of the ridges can be 

 seen from the intervening valley. Among mountains 

 where the main lines of valley are, so to say, structural 

 — i.e. depending on inequalities produced during the 

 original elevation of the mountain mass — the case is 

 somewhat different. Such valleys are usuall}^ nearly 

 straight, as we see so commonly in the European 

 Alps, and the peaks lying about the head of the 

 valley are therefore often in view ; but in the Andes, 



