10 DESCRIPTIVE GEOGRAPHY. 



across the Andes, there are two roads : one by the valley of the Turbio and Laguna, which is 

 the shorter of the two, and the other by the ravines of the Guanta and Malpaso, more to the 

 north. The former is only practicable during a few months of summer, and it is some TOO feet 

 higher than the Malpaso route ; moreover, it is exceedingly rough, and requires frequent 

 fording of the river, so that travellers usually give preference to the latter. But there are 

 many objects to repay the scientific man for encountering these hardships: warm mineral 

 baths, in a wild-looking ravine, with milky torrents of water tumbling through it ; a lake more 

 than 1,100 yards long, and 600 broad, surrounded by nearly vertical cliffs of stratified por- 

 phyry, a thousand feet high ; its surface covered with aquatic birds and plants, although at an 

 elevation of 10,500 feet; and cascades tumbling from rock to rock of the momentarily ascending 

 gorge. 



Half a league above the lake, the river supplying it is divided into three branches, and 

 after following the middle one for a long day's journey, one reaches the foot of the immediate 

 dividing line of waters between the two great oceans. Here, at an elevation of 13,300 feet, in the 

 ravines and on the southern slopes, screened from the violent winds prevailing by day, as at all 

 the other passes named, snow remains all the year. These winds are distressing in an atmos- 

 phere so rarified. As the sun declines they cease, and the temperature is comparatively pleasant 

 so long as it continues calm ; but towards daylight there commences a frigid easterly breeze, 

 which mountaineers call el terral, and the cold becomes extremely severe. The terral usually 

 ceases at sunrise, and from this time until between 9 and 10 o'clock there is a perfect calm. 

 These are the hours during which travellers endeavor to climb their last stage, and make such 

 descent on the opposite side, that the high walls of its ravines may afford them shelter. Here 

 it is easily done, the ascent to overcome being only about 2,000 feet, and the elevation of the 

 pass above the ocean 14,920 rather more than both of the others, though the summit does 

 not command a picture so interesting as either of them. A few peaks in the vicinity, per- 

 haps 1,500 feet higher than the portezuelo, . preserving a little more snow, narrow strips 

 of verdure along thread-like rivulets on the west side, and an atmosphere of exquisite trans- 

 parency these are all the objects worthy of mention, for even the geology offers no departure 

 from the general law of formations. Cattle are sometimes brought this way from the Argen- 

 tine provinces, and even the long and desolate journey does not wholly prevent traffic with 

 San Juan, on the opposite side of the Paramillo range. 



Mr. Miers mentions* a pass called LA DEHESA, immediately up the valley of the Mapocho 

 from Santiago, to the vicinity of its source north of Tupungato, and thence, after crossing the 

 ridge, through a valley of the same name as far as the juncture of the river with the Mendoza, 

 near Punta de las Vacas. Beyond this, the Cumbre and Uspallata road is followed. We 

 never heard of any such pass, and from the great elevation of the ridge between the Cumbre 

 and Uspallata it would seem impracticable. But there is no doubt that persons in search of 

 mines repeatedly traverse the Andes at points far from the usual lines of travel, and it is 

 quite probable some such may have crossed here notwithstanding the lofty line. Such a road 

 would be far shorter than those generally known, and as the distance in an air-line from San- 

 tiago to Mendoza is less than 100 miles, who shall contradict the story current in the former 

 city that in the earlier days of the church, a worthy priest constantly performed mass in both 

 cities every week ? 



Another route more frequently travelled, if not much better known to the world, is from 

 San Felipe up the valley of the river Putaendo, and across the main ridge north of Aconcagua 

 peak. This is called the pass of Los PATOS (the ducks). Descending the Andes the road 

 strikes the head-waters of the San Juan, and, following through its valley, terminates at a 

 town of the same name. It has the advantage of abundant water and pasturage, which are 

 inducements for drovers of cattle, to whom time is no great object ; but the disadvantages of no 



Travels in Chile and La Plata, by John Miers: London, 1826. 



