280 JOURNEY FROM SANDIA Cmap. XVII. 



ascend a mountain-gorge, by the side of the stream, but 

 Paco had never been out of the valley of Sandia before, 

 and was useless as a guide. All along the banks of the 

 stream there were square pools dammed up and filled with 

 heaps of potatoes and ocas, placed there to freeze into 

 chuhus, the principal food of the Indians when in the forests, 

 or on the coffee or coca estates. Higher up the gorge all 

 signs of habitation cease, though there are still abandoned 

 tiers of ancient terraces, and the mountain sceneiy is quite 

 magnificent. Night coming on without a moon, I halted 

 under a splendid range of frowning black cliffs, and suc- 

 ceeded in pitching the tent in the dark, but there was no 

 fuel, and on opening the leathern bag I found that my 

 little stock of food and lucifer-matches had been stolen in 

 Sandia. I was thus entirely dependent for existence on 

 Pace's parched maize, which proved uncommonly hard fare. 

 The cold was intense during the night, and penetrated 

 through the tent and clothes to the very marrow. 



At daybreak Paco and I loaded the mules, and continued 

 to ascend the gorge by the side of the river of Sandia, which 

 becomes a noisy little rill, and finally falls, as a thin silvery 

 cascade, over a black cliff. Reaching the summit of the 

 snowy Cordillera of Caravaya, we commenced tlie journey 

 over lofty grass-covered plains, where the ground was 

 covered with stiff white fr-ost. There were flocks of \'icunas 

 on the plain, and huallatas, large white geese with brown 

 wings and red legs, on the banks of the streams ; but as 

 we advanced even these signs of life ceased, and, when night 

 closed in, I looked roimd on the desolate scene, and thought 

 that to make a direct cut across the Cordilleras to Vilque 

 by compass-com-se was a very disagreeable way of travel- 

 ling, though, in this case, a necessary one. I had been 

 eleven hours in the saddle, when Paco found an abandoneil 

 shepherd's hut. built of loose stones, three feet high, and 



