350 PORTILLO PASS 



able. The most striking feature consisted in the rivers, which, 

 facing the rising sun, gUttered like silv^er threads, till lost in the 

 immensity of the distance. At mid-day we descended the valley, 

 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 

 passenger endeavoured to escape detection by making a long 

 circuit over a neighbouring mountain ; but this Indian, having 

 by 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 

 in 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 corner, and there 

 bivouacked. 



March 2 5 //a — I was reminded of the Pampas of Buenos 

 Ayres, 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 Cordillera. 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 *' traversia," 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 that, although we 

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



