10 FROM SANTIAGO TO MENDOZA BY THE DSPALLATA PASS. 



•water, and found great difficulty in breathing, altliougli there was little or no smell of 

 sulphur. 



Another place worthy to be seen near the Casucha de los Prquios, is a hill called the "Cerro 

 de los Penitentes," from the appearance of several isolated and turret-like rocks on it. Seen at 

 dusk when the outlines only are distinct, this 'hill has so perfectly the appearance of a castle 

 as to deceive any one who did not know that he was beyond the limits of all castles. 



Considering the breaking of my aneroid barometer as my tirst misfortune, the second 

 happened here. I took the chronometers out, and wound the two silver ones ; but as the gold 

 one had such a highly burnished case, I stopped to examine in it, as in a mirror, the condition of 

 the sores formed on my nose by the sun. Tie inspection was interesting, and led to so long a 

 train of thought as to whether my friends would recognise me, that I eventually forgot to wind 

 it, and the next morning found that it had run down. The only remedy was to make another 

 set of observations, and trust to the chronometer taking up its old rate from the start. It was 

 the only reliable time-keeper I had. 



On the evening of the 25th we again set out, greatly refreshed by the resting spell. A 

 distance of about seven miles down a straight valley bounded by nearly uniform hills, brought 

 us to the Punta de las Vacas, near which, on the southern bank of the river, is the last casu- 

 cha; and on the left of the road are the ruins of a stone hut, formerly the Guardia, or toll-gate. 

 Vegetation became more abundant and varied as we descended. Besides the thin grass and 

 weeds we had seen before, there were two classes of low bushes ; one, somewhat resembling 

 myrtle, is, I believe, called the Chilca, and the other Jarilla. The latter was in bloom, its 

 leaves and flowers being arranged in palm-shaped branches, and the flowers almost invariably 

 towards the eastward, probably for protection from the wind, which is generally from the 

 opposite direction. 



After passing the ruins of the Guardia Vicja, the road crosses the Punta de las Vacas, and 

 at a short distance is in front of one of the finest views in the cordillera. To the southward is 

 a long valley, down which flows the Eio de Tupungato, a stream tributary to the Cuevas, taking 

 its rise at the base of a majestic mountain called Tupungato. (See wood-cut, opposite.) 



This appears to lie midway between the two ranges bounding the river, and to block up the 

 valley at that point. Its summit is nearly hemispherical in form, and covered with perpetual 

 snow, and there is a quiet grandeur about it, as seen from this place, far exceeding anything 

 else in this pass. 



A short distance from the point we forded the Eio de las Vacas, the most formidable stream, 

 not bridged, in the mountains.* At its junction the main stream loses its name, and from the 

 Eio de la Cuevas becomes the Eio de Mendoza. Crossed the Ladera de las Vacas, and arrived 

 at the Peiion Easgado. This is a large rock, split both latitudinally and longitudinally, which, 

 like a quartered orange, appears to be on the point of falling apart. From here to the Ladera 

 de las Polvaderas there is nothing worth noting. There is, or was, in this ladera a very start- 

 ling place called La Caleta. The path sweeps up the skirt of a hill, which at the commence- 

 ment is not very precipitous on one hand or the other, but at the distance of about a third of a 

 mile it becomes almost perpendicular, and just in the worst part the road turns abruptly behind 

 a large rock and enters a few paces into the mountain. Overhead is a jutting rock, which, 

 although high enough, does not appear so, and the rider mechanically dips his head to avoid 

 contact. After passing this, there is an immediate descent, by a few rude steps cut in the 

 mountain ; and before one is aware of it he is again out of the cave, and on the brink of a 

 precipice near two hundred feet deep.f 



Farther on there is another ladera called Las Cortaderas, which has also its dangerous part; 

 being cut into the hill, so that it looks like a tunnel, except that it is open towards the river. 



* I loarneii tlint a briilge was being made for tliis stream in Meuduza, and, on my second trip in the following year, found an 

 excellent one erected — the work of my friend, Colonel Rivarola. 



t On my second trip, this place was so much Improved as to be no longer foruiidable. 



