84 USPALLATA PASS. 



Pampas, the gardens and orchards must appear de- 

 hghtful. Sir F. Head, speaking of the inhabitants, 

 says, " They eat their dinners, and it is so very hot, 

 they go to sleep — and could they do better?" 1 

 quite agree with Sir F. Head : the happy doom of 

 the Mendozinos is to eat, sleep, and be idle. 



March 29th. — We set out on our return to 

 Chile by the Uspallata pass, situated north of Men- 

 doza. We had to cross a long and most sterile 

 traversia of fifteen leagues. The soil in parts was 

 absolutely bare, in others covered by numberless 

 dwarf cacti, armed with formidable spines, and 

 called by the inhabitants " little lions," There 

 were also a few low bushes. Although the plain 

 is nearly three thousand feet above the sea, the sun 

 was very powerful ; and the heat, as well as the 

 clouds of impalpable dust, rendered the travelling 

 extremely irksome. Our course during the day lay 

 nearly parallel to the Cordillera, but gi-adually ap- 

 proaching them. Before sunset we entered one of 

 the wide valleys, or rather bays, which open on the 

 plain : this soon narrowed into a ravine, where, a 

 little higher up, the house of Villa Vicencio is situ- 

 ated. As we had ridden all day without a drop of 

 water, both our mules and selves were very thirsty, 

 and we looked out anxiously for the stream which 

 flows down this valley. It was curious to observe 

 how gradually the water made its appearance : on 

 tlie plain the course was quite dry ; by degrees it 

 became a little damper ; then puddles of water ap- 

 peared ; these soon became connected ; and at Villa 

 Vicencio there was a nice little rivulet. 



^Qth. — The solitary hovel which bears the im- 

 posing name of Villa Vicencio has been mentioned 

 by every traveller who has crossed the Andes. I 

 stayed here and at some neighbouring mines during 



