1835.] INDIAN RUINS. 353 



most offensively putrid and bitter ; so that we could not 

 force ourselves to drink either tea or mate. I suppose the 

 distance from the river of Copiap6 to this spot was at 

 least twenty-five or thirty English miles ; in the whole 

 space there was not a single drop of water, the country 

 deserving the name of desert in the strictest sense. Yet 

 about half-way we passed some old Indian ruins near 

 Punta Gorda : I noticed also in front of some of the valleys, 

 which branch off from the Despoblado, two piles of stones 

 placed a little way apart, and directed so as to point up 

 the mouths of these small valleys. My companions knew 

 nothing about them, and only answered my queries by 

 their imperturbable " Quien sabe ? " 



I observed Indian ruins in several parts of the Cordillera : 

 the most perfect, which I saw, were the Ruinas de Tambillos, 

 in the Uspallata Pass. Small square rooms were there 

 huddled together in separate groups : some of the doorways 

 were yet standing ; they were formed by a cross slab of 

 stone only about three feet high. Ulloa has remarked on 

 the lowness of the doors in the ancient Peruvian dwellings. 

 These houses, when perfect, must have been capable of 

 containing a considerable number of persons. Tradition 

 says that they were used as halting places for the Incas, 

 when they crossed the mountains. Traces of Indian habi- 

 tations have been discovered in many other parts, where 

 it does not appear probable that they were used as mere 

 resting-places, but yet where the land is as utterly unfit 

 for any kind of cultivation as it is near the Tambillos or 

 at the Incas' Bridge, or in the Portillo Pass, at all which 

 places I saw ruins. In the ravine of Jajuel, near Aconcagua, 

 where there is no pass, I heard of remains of houses situ- 

 ated at a great height,, where it is extremely cold and 

 sterile. At first I imagined that these buildings had been 

 places of refuge, built by the Indians on the first arrival 

 of the Spaniards; but I have since been inclined to specu- 

 late on the probability of a small change of climate. 



In this northern part of Chile, within the Cordillera, old 

 Indian houses are said to be especially numerous: by 

 digging amongst the ruins, bits of woollen articles, instru- 

 ments of precious metals, and heads of Indian corn, are 

 not unfrcquently discovered : an arrow-head made of 

 agate, and of precisely the same form with those now 

 used in Tierra del Fuego, was given mc. 1 am aware that 

 M the Peruvian Indians now frequently inhabit most lofty 



