INDIAN RUINS. ri-ll 



remarked how mud-banks, left by the retiring tide, imitate in 

 miniature a country with hill and dale ; and here we have the 

 original model in rock, formed as the continent rose during the 

 secular retirement of the ocean, instead of during the ebbing and 

 flowing of the tides. If a shower of rain falls on the mud-bank, 

 when left dry, it deepens the already-formed shallow lines of 

 excavation ; and so it is with the rain of successive centuries on 

 the bank of rock and soil, which we call a continent. 



We rode on after it was dark, till we reached a side ravine with 

 a small well, called " Agua amarga." The water deserved its 

 name, for besides being saline it was 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 Copiapo 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 AVC 

 passed some old Indian ruins near Punta Gorda : I noticed also in 

 front of some of the valleys, which branch off from the Desploblado, 

 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 imper- 

 turbable " quien sabe ? " 



I observed Indian ruins in several parts of the Cordillera : the 

 most perfect which I saw, were the Euinas 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 habitations 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 situated 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 



