302 PORTILLO PASS. [CHAP. xV. 



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 

 immediately 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, accord- 

 ing to the muleteer, she is the chief object of affection. The feel- 

 ing, however, is not of 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 pro- 

 portional 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 

 ..cither of its parents, seems to indicate that art has here outdone 

 nature. Of our ten animals, six were intended for riding, and four 

 for carrying 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 l$th. We rode during this day to the last, and therefore 

 most elevated, house in the yalley. 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 charac- 

 terized 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 Chile, where 

 there are no streams, are thus smoothly filled up. On these fringes 

 the roads are generally carried, for their surfaces are even, and 

 they rise with a very gentle slope up the valleys : hence, also, they 

 are easily cultivated by irrigation. They may be traced up to a 

 height of between 7000 and 9000 feet, where they become hidden 

 by the irregular piles of debris. At the lower end or mouths of 

 the valleys, they are continuously united to those land-locked 

 plains (also formed of shingle) at the foot of the main Cordillera, 

 which I have described in a former chapter as charateristic of the 

 scenery of Chile, and which were undoubtedly deposited when the 



