322 AN OBSTINATE POT. [chap. xv. 



tliere was any danger of bad weather ; but he said that 

 without thunder and lightning there was no risk of a heavy 

 snowstorm. The peril is imminent, and the difficulty of 

 subsequent escape great, to any one overtaken by bad 

 weather between the two ranges. A certain cave offers the 

 only place of refuge : Mr. Caldcleugh, who crossed on this 

 same day of the month, was detained there for some time 

 by a heavy fall of snow. Casuchas, or houses of refuge, 

 have not been built in this pass as in that of Uspallata, and 

 therefore, during the autumn, the Portillo is little frequented. 

 I may here remark that within the main Cordillera rain 

 never falls, for during the summer the sky is cloudless, 

 and in winter snowstorms alone occur. 



At the place where we slept water necessarily boiled, 

 from the diminished pressure of the atmosphere, at a lower 

 temperature than it does in a less lofty country ; the case 

 being the converse of that of a Papin's digester. Hence 

 the potatoes, after remaining for some hours in the boiling 

 water, were nearly as hard as ever. The pot was left on 

 the fire all night, and next morning it was boiled again, but 

 yet the potatoes were not cooked. I found out this, by 

 overhearing my two companions discussing the cause ; they 

 had come to the simple conclusion, ** that the cursed pot 

 (which was a new one) did not choose to boil potatoes." 



March 22nd. — After eating our potato-less breakfast, 

 we travelled across the Intermediate tract to the foot of the 

 Portillo range. In the middle of summer cattle are brought 

 up here to graze ; but they had now all been removed : 

 even the greater number of the guanacos had decamped, 

 knowing well that If overtaken here by a snowstorm, they 

 would be caught In a trap. We had a fine view of a mass 

 of mountains called Tupungato, the whole clothed with 

 unbroken snow, In the midst of which there was a blue 

 patch, no doubt a glacier ; — a circumstance of rare occur- 

 rence in these mountains. Now commenced a heavy and 

 long climb, similar to that up the Peuquenes. Bold conical 

 hills of red granite rose on each hand; in the valleys there 

 were several broad fields of perpetual snow. These frozen 

 masses, during the process of thawing, had In some parts 

 been converted Into pinnacles or columns,* which, as they 



* This structure in frozen snow was long since observed by Scoresby in the 

 iceberg-s near Spitzbergen, and lately, with more care by Colonel jfackson 

 {Journal of Geographical Society, vol. v. p. 12) on the 'Neva. Mr. Lyell 

 ('• Principles," vol. iv. p. 360) has compared the fissures by which the columnar 



