1835.] PINNACLES OF SNOW. 311 



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 over- 

 hearing 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 potatoless 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 

 snow-storm, 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 occurrence in these moun- 

 tains. Now commenced a heavy and long climb, similar to that 

 of 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 were high and close together, made it difficult for the cargo 

 mules to pass. On one of these columns of ice, a frozen horse was 

 sticking as on a pedestal, but with its hind legs straight up in the 

 air. The animal, I suppose, must have fallen with its head down- 

 ward into a hole, when the snow was continuous, and afterwards 

 the surrounding parts must have been removed by the thaw. 



When nearly on the crest of the Portillo, we were enveloped in a 

 falling cloud of minute frozen spicula. This was very unfortunate, 

 as it continued the whole day, and quite intercepted our view. The 

 pass takes its name of Portillo, from a narrow cleft or doorway on 

 the highest ridge, through which the road passes. From this 

 point, on a clear day, those vast plains which uninterruptedly 

 extend to the Atlantic Ocean, can be seen. We descended to the 

 upper limit of vegetation, and found good quarters for the night 



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

 the icebergs near Spitzbergen, and, lately, with more care, by Colonel 

 Jackson (Joum. of Geograph. Soc., vol. v. p. 12) on the Neva. Mr. 

 Lyell (Principles, vol. iv. p. 360) has compared the fissures, by which 

 the columnar structure seems to be determined, to the joints that traverse 

 nearly all rocks, but which are best seen in the non-stratified masses. 

 I may observe, that in the case of the frozen snow, the columnar structure 

 must be owing to a " rnetiunorphic " action, and not to a process during 

 deposition. 



