SIERRA VENTANA. 137 



scorlcc were found by the officers employed in the 

 survey. 



As it was early in the afternoon when we ar- 

 rived, we took fresh horses, and a soldier for a guide, 

 and started for the Sierra de la Ventana. This 

 mountain is visible from the anchorage at jBahia 

 Blanca ; and Capt. Fitz Roy calculates its height 

 to be 3340 feet — an altitude very remarkable on 

 this eastern side of the continent. I am not aware 

 that any foreigner, previous to my visit, had as- 

 cended this mountain; and indeed very few of the 

 soldiers at Bahia Blanca knew anything about it. 

 Hence we heard of beds of coal, of gold and sil- 

 ver, of caves, and of forests, all of which inflamed 

 my curiosity, only to disappoint it. The distance 

 from the posta was about six leagues, over a level 

 plain of the same character as before. The ride 

 was, however, interesting, as the mountain began to 

 show its true form. When we reached the foot of 

 the main ridge, we had much difficvilty in finding 

 any water, and we thought we should have been 

 obliged to have passed the night without any. At 

 last we discovered some by looking close to the 

 mountain, for at the distance even of a few hun- 

 dred yards the sti-eamlets were buried, and entire- 

 ly lost in the friable calcareous stone and loose de- 

 tritus. I do not think Nature ever made a more 

 solitary, desolate pile of rock ; it well deserves its 

 name of Hurtado, or separated. The mountain is 

 steep, extremely I'ugged and broken, and so en- 

 tirely destitute of trees, and even bushes, that we 

 actually could not make a skewer to stretch out 

 our meat over the fire of thistle-stalks.* The 

 strange aspect of this mountain is conti'asted by the 

 sea-like plain, which not only abuts against its steep 



* I call these thistle-stalks for the want of a more correct 

 name. I believe it is a species of Eryngium. 

 M2 



