1835.] A CURIOUS STORM. 357 



portions of the earth — even on Islets In the midst of great 

 oceans. 



The scene on all sides showed desolation, brightened and 

 made palpable by a clear, unclouded sky. For a time 

 such scenery is sublime, but this feeling cannot last, and 

 then it becomes uninteresting. We bivouacked at the foot 

 of the " primera linea," or the first line of the partition of 

 the waters. The streams, however, on the east side do 

 not flow to the Atlantic, but into an elevated district. In 

 the middle of which there is a large salina, or salt lake ; 

 — thus forming a little Caspian Sea at the height, perhaps, 

 of ten thousand feet. Where we slept, there were some 

 considerable patches of snow, but they do not remain 

 through the year. The winds in these lofty regions obey 

 very regular laws : every day a fresh breeze blows up the 

 valley, and at night, an hour or two after sunset, the air 

 from the cold regions above descends as through a funnel. 

 This night it blew a gale of wind, and the temperature 

 must have been considerably below the freezing-point, for 

 water in a vessel soon became a block of ice. No clothes 

 seemed to oppose any obstacle to the air ; I suffered very 

 much from the cold, so that I could not sleep, and in the 

 morning rose with my body quite dull and benunibed. 



In the Cordillera farther southward, people lose their 

 lives from snow-storms ; here, it sometimes happens from 

 another cause. My guide, when a boy of fourteen years 

 old, was passing the Cordillera with a party in the month 

 of May ; and while in the central parts, a furious gale 

 of wind arose, so that the men could hardly cling on their 

 mules, and stones were flying along the ground. The day 

 was cloudless, and not a speck of snow fell, but the 

 temperature was low. It is probable that the thermometer 

 would not have stood very many degrees below the freezing- 

 point, but the effect on their bodies, ill protected by clothing, 

 must have been in proportion to the rapidity of the current 

 oi' cold air. The gale lasted for more than a day ; the men 

 l)Cgan to lose their strength, and the mules would not 

 move onwards. My guide's brother tried to return, but he 

 perished, and his body was found two years afterwards, 

 iving by the side of his mule near the road, with the bridle 



ill in his hand. Two other men in the parly lost their 

 iingers and toes ; and out of two hundred mules and thirty 

 ( ows, only fourteen mules escaped alive. Many years ago 

 the whole of a large party are supposed to have perisJKHl 



