32* PORTILLO PASS. [chap. x\ 



and reached a hovel, where an officer and three soldiers were 

 posted to examine passports. One of these men was a thorough- 

 bred Pampas Indian : he was kept much for the same purpose 

 as a bloodhound, to track out any person who might pass by 

 secretly, either on foot or horseback. Some years ago, a pas- 

 senger endeavoured to escape detection, by making a long 

 circuit over a neighbouring mountain ; but this Indian, having 

 oy chance crossed his track, followed it for the whole day over 

 dry and very stony hills, till at last he came on his prey hidden 

 .n a gully. We here heard that the silvery clouds, which we 

 had admired from the bright region above, had poured down 

 torrents of rain. The valley from this point gradually opened, 

 and the hills became mere water-worn hillocks compared to the 

 giants behind: it then expanded into a gently-sloping plain of 

 shingle, covered with low trees and bushes. This talus, although 

 appearing narrow, must be nearly ten miles wide before it blends 

 into the apparently dead level Pampas. We passed the only house 

 in this neighbourhood, the Estancia of Chaquaio ; and at sunset 

 we pulled up in the first snug coiner, and there bivouacked. 



March 25th. — I was reminded of the Pampas of Buenos Ay res, 

 by seeing the disk of the rising sun, intersected by an horizon, 

 level as that of the ocean. During the night a heavy dew fell, 

 a circumstance which we did not experience within the Cordil- 

 lera. The road proceeded for some distance due east across a 

 low swamp ; then meeting the dry plain, it turned to the north 

 towards Mendoza. The distance is two very long days' journey. 

 Our first day's journey was called fourteen leagues to Estacado, 

 and the second seventeen to Luxan, near Mendoza. The whole 

 distance is over a level desert plain, with not more than two or 

 three houses. The sun was exceedingly powerful, and the ride 

 devoid of all interest. There is very little water in this " tra- 

 versia," and in our second day's journey we found only one 

 little pool. Little water flows from the mountains, and it soon 

 becomes absorbed by the dry and porous soil ; so tiiat, although 

 we travelled at the distance of only ten or fifteen miles from the 

 outer range of the Cordillera, we did not cross a single stream. 

 In many parts the ground was incrusted with a saline efflor- 

 escence ; hence we had the same salt-loving plants, which are 

 common near Bahia Blanca. The landscape has a uniumu 



