THE KOMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



or Cage, from which the pass takes its name, 

 where we took up our quarters for the night, 

 under the lee of a solid mass of granite upwards 

 of thirty feet square, with the clear, beautiful 

 heavens for our canopy. Well may this place be 

 called a cage. To give a just idea of it would be 

 next to impossible, for I do not think a more wild 

 or grander scene in nature could possibly exist; 

 nevertheless I shall attempt a description. The 

 foaming river, branching oft* into different chan- 

 nels formed by huge masses of granite lying in its 

 course, ran between two gigantic mountains of 

 about one thousand five hundred feet high, and 

 not more than two hundred yards distant from 

 each other ; so that to look up at the summits of 

 either, we had to lay our heads completely back 

 on our shoulders. Behind us, these tremendous 

 mountains met in a point, round which we had 

 just passed, but now appeared as one mountain, 

 closing our view in a distance of not more than 

 four or five hundred yards; before was the mighty 

 Cordillera, a mass of snow, appearing to block up 

 further progress. Thus were we completely shut 

 up in a den of mighty mountains; to look up 

 either way — before, behind, right, or left — excited 

 astonishment, awe, and admiration. Huge 

 masses of granite, that had fallen from the awful 

 heights above, lay scattered about, and 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, un- 

 couth-looking peons were assembled round a fire 

 under the lee of a large rock, which altogether 

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