196 JOURNAL. 



24th. — At seven o'clock we resumed our journey, in company with 

 the peon Felipe ; and about a mile from Bustamante, another peon 

 with baggage joined us without ceremony, and performed the rest 

 of the journey with us. As the new road over the Cuesta de Prado 

 makes a circuit of several miles, Felipe wisely determined on leading 

 us up the old mountain-path, which, but that we had been inured 

 gradually to the sight of precipices, might have appeared tremendous. 

 About half a mile from Bustamante we quitted O'Higgins's road, and 

 entered what is here called a monte or thicket * of beautiful under- 

 wood, and occasionally very large trees. The giant torch-thistle, 

 starting up here and there among the lower shrubs, gave a pictur- 

 esque peculiarity to the scene. About the centre of the monte, 

 a large clear space presented a pleasing picture : it was the resting- 

 place of a string of mules employed in carrying goods across the 

 cordillera ; the packages were placed in a circle, two bales together, 

 and in the midst the masters and animals were reposing or eating, 

 as pleased them ; and at their little fire, close at hand, two or three 

 of the men were employed in cooking. We soon began to ascend 

 the sharp and rugged mountain, and could not help stopping every 

 now and then to admire the beautiful scene behind us, and to look 

 down into the leafy gulfs at our feet. Here and there the windings 

 of the road were marked by strings of loaded mules on their way to 

 the capital, and the long call of the muleteers resounding from the 

 opposite cliffs harmonised well with the scene. 



At length we reached the summit, and the Andes appeared in 

 hoary majesty above a hundred ranges of inferior hills ; but we had 

 not yet come to the most beautiful spot ; that lies about three fur- 

 longs from the junction of the old and the new roads of the Cuesta 

 de Prado. Looking to one side, the long valleys we had passed 

 stretched out into a distance doubled by the morning mist, through 

 which the surrounding hills shone in every variety of tint ; on the 

 other hand, lies the beautiful plain of Santiago, through which the 



* The application of the word Monte arose, it seems, in the plains of Buenos Ayres, 

 which are so flat, that wherever there is a grove, the distant effect is in truth that of a Kill. 



