50 HARMONIES. 



formed our various shelters for the night. The torrent, 

 which now had become very formidable, rushed down 

 with fury, bounding and leaping over the rugged rocks 

 which lay in its course, keeping up a continued foam and 

 roar close to our wild resting-place. The mules were 

 straying about picking up the scanty shrubs ; and our 

 wild, uncouth-looking peons were assembled round a fire 

 under the lee of a large rock, which altogether rendered 

 it a scene most truly wild and surprising."* 



Can animal life habitually exist in these awful soli- 

 tudes? Is it possible that any creature can make its 

 home amidst this waste of stark granite and everlasting 

 ice ? Yes ; the guanaco, or Peruvian camel, delights to 

 dwell here, and is as truly characteristic of the region as 

 the Arabian camel is of the sandy desert. It snuffs the 

 thin air in its wild freedom, and specially delights in 

 those loftier ridges which the Peruvians term punas, 

 where the elements appear to have concentrated all their 

 sternness. It was the sudden appearance of a guanaco, 

 on a lofty peak above the party, that gave occasion to the 

 above description. The peons, with their dogs, had pur- 

 sued it, and having overtaken it, had dragged down the 

 carcase, and were now roasting its flesh over their camp-fira 



The wild reindeer, in his native snows, is seldom visited 

 by civilised man ; and it is a thing to be remembered 

 during life to have seen him there. Climb the precipices 

 of that rugged mountain-chain that forms the backbone 

 of Norway ; cross plain after plain, each more dreary than 

 * Brand's Travels in Peru, p. 102. 



I 



