CHARACTER OF THE SCENERY. 755 



always a large open space in front, sheltered 

 by the projecting thatch of the house, and 

 furnished sometimes with a rough table and 

 benches. Here would be the women at their 

 work, or the children at play, or sometimes 

 the drovers taking their lunch of tortillas and 

 wine, while their animals munched their mid- 

 day meal hard by. The scenery was often fine. 

 On the third day the fertile soil, watered by 

 many rivers, was exchanged for a sandy plain, 

 broken by a thorny mimosa scattered over the 

 surface. This plain lay between the Cordillera 

 of the Andes and the Coast Range. As the 

 road advanced farther inland, the panorama 

 of the Cordilleras became more and more 

 striking. In the glow of the sunset, the peaks 

 of the abrupt, jagged walls and the volcano- 

 like summits were defined against the sky in 

 all their rugged beauty. There was little here 

 to remind one of the loveliness of the Swiss 

 Alps. With no lower green slopes, no soft 

 pasturage grounds leading gently up to rocky 

 heights, the Andes, at least in this part of 

 their range, rise arid, stern, and bol^ from 

 base to crest, a fortress wall unbroken by tree 

 or shrub, or verdure of any kind, and relieved 

 only by the rich and varied coloring of the 

 rock. 



