4 FROM SANTIAGO TO MENDOZA BY THE rSPALLATA PASS. 



crossing a rapid mountain stream ; and as the Aconcagua in the early part of the spring, when 

 the snows begin to melt, is very formidable, it was nearly my worst. At first I looked at the 

 river and the mules ahead; but the rapidity of the one, and the slow progress of the others 

 over the rounded stones, made me giddy. I could not get rid of the idea that we were all being 

 washed down the stream; and if I had not ceased gazing at the rushing water, and looked at 

 the sky only, as is common with jjersons ascending giddy heights, I should have fallen off the 

 mule. This is, I believe, the experience of all new hands. 



Each of the streams at the ford was about twenty-five yards wide, two feet deep, and very 

 rapid. 



On our arrival at the farm of the an-iero, we gave ourselves up to rest for the remainder of 

 that day. 



Passed the 17th in making a set of observations — the arriero and his family being occupied 

 meanwhile with the necessary 2)reparations for the voyage, which consisted in shoeing th mules 

 and getting ready our provisions. The food usual and most adapted to the mountains is 

 charqui or dried beef, which instead of being made in junks, like that we are accustomed to see, 

 is dried in thin sheets. For use it is either roasted in its ordinary state, or, what is most com- 

 mon in the cordillera, baked and afterwards pounded till it is reduced to powder ; and when so 

 prepared, nothing more is necessary to make a savory mess of it than to put five or six table- 

 spoonfuls in a tin pot, break up with it some crackers or bread, and throw in a few slices of 

 onion; then fill the pot with boiling water, and after allowing it to steep for fifteen minutes, 

 you have as savory and nourishing a dish as can be prepared with the limited amount of 

 cooking utensils of a traveller among the Andes. It is probably the food best adapted to the 

 thin air of the mountains; and as its bulk is very small, it deserves precedence over all other. 



On the 18th, as we were not quite ready, I rode back to Santa Eosa, and made a set of 

 observations for latitude and longitude. As I did not consider my work to commence until we 

 entered the mountains, I took no pains to inform myself as to the population of the place, &c. 

 Nor did it appear to be a very easy matter, for the town extends over so much ground that it is 

 difficult to say where its limits end and the country begins. It has a public j^laza, two 

 alamedas — shaded, as usual, by Lombardy pojjlars — at least one church, one school-house, one 

 inn, and two or three apothecary-shops. The best idea I could form of the condition of the arts 

 and sciences was derived from the fact that there was no one capable of repairing the chain of 

 the aneroid barometer. The only place in the town where anything of the kind could be done 

 was at a silversmith's, where the principal occupation of the workmen was making ornaments 

 for spur and bridle mountings. As for the inn, it was bad enough, and it cost us a good deal 

 of trouble to find it. We asked for it under every possible name we could think of, and at 

 length found one person sufficiently intelligent to divine that we meant the " billar," or billiard- 

 room, as it is called, and there we accordingly repaired. The one billiard-table it contained was 

 unique of its kind ; it was about eight feet long and four broad, with pockets large enough for 

 a ten-pin ball, and gutters had been worn from the middle of the table towards the pockets. 

 At twelve and a half cents for a game of thirty, it appeared to be a profitable piece of furni- 

 ture. As for the food, it is only necessary to say that in any house in Chile, however humble, 

 the traveller can obtain a good cazuela — a kind of vegetable soup, peculiar to that country — and 

 an epicure need not ask for anything better. The "billar" has rooms for lodgers ; but as I did 

 not try them, I can only say that they looked uncomfortable. 



November 19, 1852. — Having made all preparations, we set out from the chacra de Montumas 

 for the mountains, our party consisting of the arriero, his peon, and myself; and, until we were 

 clear of the settlements, there was a boy to lead the madrina (god-mother) or bell-mare. Of 

 animals we had three saddle-mules, two burden-mules, a spare one for a change in case of 

 necessity, and the madrina. 



Two miles to the southward, on the road to Santa Eosa, brought us to a little settlement 

 called La Junta, where we turned off to the eastward, near the north bank of the Aconcagua. 



