156 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Tala, Mimosa, &c., that cover the gentle slopes rising one above 
another to the foot of the mountains, and, following the cattle- 
tracks, had great difficulty in preserving our skins and clothes 
whole from the almost impassable barrier of formidable thorns. 
Of course, Indian-file was the order of the day for another league, 
which brought us to the foot of the mountains,—a bold and 
towering range, flanked by a rushing mountain torrent, which we 
had to cross, and thence, eaxcelsior, through dense forests of very 
fine growth, the trees averaging sixty to eighty feet, with a dense 
brushwood of sweetly-scented medicinal herbs, with which the 
Sierras abound, and which, crushed by the horses’ hoofs, presented 
us with a real mountain bouquet. 
Hard work for the horses! for besides having to cross mountain 
streams every five minutes, granilic slippery boulders of two or 
three feet high everywhere blocked our path and had to be 
surmounted, the rider generally clinging to the horse’s neck. 
A sudden turn in the path brought us to an open space from 
which the view was exquisite, hill and dale melting into that airy 
purple gauze which separates the physical from the ideal. No 
sound to break the solemn stillness, save the distant roar of some 
mountain torrent or the plaintive cooing of some solitary dove. 
Here both Nature and our own bodily wants invited us to rest; 
and what fitter place for horse or man? Luxuriant herbage 
for the former, for the latter the sombre shade of the towering 
Quebracho, Algarroba, Tala, Coco, Espinillo, Tintitaco, and the 
Chana, the latter of which produces a fruit much resembling the 
date in flavour. A bubbling stream at our feet, a back-ground of 
picturesque boulders, many of which, half-hidden in the dense 
foliage, weighed hundreds of tons, and beds of moss inviting to 
the midday siesta. Lazily reclining, “sub tegmine fagi,” and 
watching those richly ornamented flying-flowers chasing one 
another through space, grandeur, solitariness and thoughts of 
home and distant friends flit through the mind. But time is 
inexorable; we resume our march, and, leaving the woods behind, 
emerge upon ground covered with long coarse grass springing from 
between the stones. The absence of animal life is characteristic 
of this elevated region; for with the exception of here and there 
an Eagle perched on a giddy rocky eminence, or a noble Condor 
circling high, like a moving speck, in the lofty air, nothing 
relieves the monotony of the noiseless scene; and yet how the 
