1835.] COLD GALES OF WIND. 



which, as long as there is the least vegetation, subsist in consi- 

 derable numbers in very desert places. In Patagonia, even on the 

 borders of the salinas, where a drop of fresh water can never be 

 found, excepting dew, these little animals swarm. Next to lizards, 

 mice appear to be able to support existence on the smallest and 

 driest 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 un- 

 interesting. 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 throughout 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 benumbed. 



In the Cordillera further southward, people lose their lives from 

 snowstorms ; 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 beeen in pro- 

 portion to the rapidity of the current of cold air. The gale lasted 

 for more than a day; the men began 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, lying 



