110 



out by miners, for there is a large copper deposit near the turn of the great 

 barranca, in a most inaccessible position. The valley extends a hundred 

 miles above the town, and contains some old, rich, silver mines. We now 

 proceed to Cerrocahui a small place on the temperate mesa, surrounded 

 by arable land; here is an adobe church built in 1700. There are charming 

 spots on the mesa, well wooded and level, with clear streams which end 

 in a sheer descent of many thousand feet; from one, there is a view over 

 the immense crags of the Arroyo Hondo. They are kept green by a slight 

 deposition of mist or fine rain, in ascending currents of air, forced up the 

 cliffs by wind; a short distance from the edge, such moisture is absent. 



The track passes Tecumichic (elevation 5950 feet) and Sinagita, and 

 emerges on the edge of the mesa at £1 Ojito (the little eye), whence one 

 can see several thousand square miles of country, including points sixty 

 miles distant. On the east, istheCerro del Pilar, a series of singular forms 

 of eroded trachyte, and the old lake basin of Tubares; to the south, are 

 the volcanoes of Realito, Cobre, and Pinitos; and west, are long tongues 

 of tableland divided by precipitous valleys. Such a view must be uncom- 

 mon in any country. Prom this point the track descends rapidly to the hot 

 springs of Huachara situated among a number of small hills with streams 

 winding among them; the remarkable similarity and strange form of the- 

 se hills can hardly be due to ordinary erosion; they are composed of loose 

 stones, gravel, and sand of a reddish colour, and the entire hollow is filled 

 with them. The track passes over Sausillo, and from El Sillon beyond it, 

 a new view is obtained of innumerable small hills and mountains; it soon 

 passes the boundary between the old trachyte and the recent volcanic area, 

 and reaches La Junta by Tacopaco, a village in a valley containing many 

 palm-trees called tacos. 



Descending the main river to Agua Caliente de Baca the bed is found 

 to be of syenite; it finally emerges into the low country through the Ca 

 jon de Haites, between the Cerro de Santiago and the Gerro de Ghucha- 

 ca. Belowthis, the country is generally syenite, but part of it is covered 

 by a lava sheet 20 feet thick, which filled an old bed of the river, moul- 

 ding itself to the waterworn rocks, sealing up beds of gravel, and someti- 

 mes rising into bubbles over pools; the river subsequently cut through 

 the layer and 50 feet of syenite, leaving the junction exposed on a cliff. 

 As auriferous veins are abundant in these gravels; a surmise which was 

 verified by washing a handful of gravel. The top of the lava bears a plan- 

 tation of large cultivated ages for making the spirit called mezaal: they 

 grow luxuriantly on the descomposing rock. The lava extends to Agua Ca- 

 liente, where there are springs at a temperoture of 120 J P., containing sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen and carbonates; in the hot water the stones are coated 



