80 PORTILLO PASS. 



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 ad- 

 mired 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 exjsanded into a gently-sloping plain of shin- 

 gle, 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 neigh- 

 bourhood, the Estancia of Chaquaio, and at sunset 

 pulled up in the first snug comer, and there bivou- 

 acked. 



March 25th. — I was reminded of the Pampas of 

 Buenos Ayres by seeing the disk of the rising sun 

 intersected by a horizon level as that of the ocean. 

 Dui'ing 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 dis- 

 tance 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 powei-ful, 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 that, although we travelled at 



