1835.] "MADRINAS." 313 



Carrying an iron pot, we cooked and ate our supper under 

 a cloudless sky, and knew no trouble. My companions were 

 Mariano Gonzales, who had formerly accompanied me in 

 Chile, and an " arriero," with his ten mules and a 

 "madrlna." The madrina (or godmother) is a most 

 important personage : she is an old steady mare, with a 

 little bell round her neck ; and wherever she goes, the 

 mules, like good children, follow her. The affection ot 

 these animals for their madrinas saves infinite trouble. 

 If several large troops are turned into one field to graze, 

 in the morning the muleteers have only to lead the madrinas 

 a little apart, and tinkle their bells ; and although there 

 may be two or three hundred together, each mule immedi- 

 ately knows the bell of its own madrina, and comes to 

 her. It is nearly impossible to lose an old mule ; for if 

 detained for several hours by force, she will, by the power 

 of smell, like a dog, track out her companions, or rather 

 the madrina, for, according to the muleteer, she is the 

 chief object of affection. The feeling, however, is not ot 

 an individual nature ; for I believe I am right in saying 

 that any animal with a bell will serve as a madrina. In 

 a troop each animal carries, on a level road, a cargo 

 weighing 416 pounds (more than 29 stone), but in a 

 mountainous country 100 pounds less ; yet with what 

 delicate slim limbs, without any proportional bulk of 

 muscle, these animals support so great a burden ! The 

 mule always appears to me a most surprising animal. 

 That a hybrid should possess more reason, memory, 

 obstinacy, social affection, powers of muscular endurance, 

 and length of life, than either of its parents, seems to in- 

 dicate that art has here outdone nature. Of our ten 

 animals, six were intended for riding, and four for carry- 

 ing cargoes, each taking turn about. We carried a good 

 deal of food in case we should be snowed up, as the season 

 was rather late for passing the Portillo. 



March \<^th. — We rode during this day to the last, and 

 therefore most elevated house in the valley. The number 

 of inhabitants became scanty ; but wherever water could 

 be brought on the land, it was very fertile. All the main 

 valleys in the Cordillera are characterised by having, on 

 both sides, a fringe or terrace of shingle and sand, rudely 

 stratified, and generally of considerable thickness. These 

 fringes evidently once extended across the valleys, and were 

 united ; and the bottoms of the valleys in northern Chilr, 



