CHAPTER VII. 



FROM MENDOZA TO SANTIAGO AND BACK BY THE PORTILLO PASS, AND RETURN HOME. 



lEAVE MENDOZA. LUJAN. SINGULAR THENOMENON IN THE VALLEY. TAME OSTRICHES. PASSPORTS. ARENALES. 



SINGULAR WATERFOWL VEGETATION. EASTERN PORTILLO. LA OLLA. FUEL. VALLET OF THE TUNUYAN. 



FATE OF A FAMILY CAUGHT IN THE VALLEY. WESTERN PORTILLO. PATH DOWN SINGULAR APPEARANCE OF THE 



HEAD OF THE VALLEY OF THE YESO. BARRIER RANGE. LADERA DE SAN FRANCISCO. RIO MAYPU. PROSPEROUS 



CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY'. CONTRAST WITH THE EASTERN SIDE. SAN JOSE. RIDE TO SANTIAGO. ANOTHER 



CHARACTERISTIC OF CHILE. RETURN TO SAN JOSE. SNOW STORM AT THE OLLA. LODGINGS IN THE MOUNTAINS. 



PASS THE EASTERN PORTILLO IN A SNOW-STORM. PUNA. INVULNERABILITY OP ABRIEROS. ARRIVE AT MEN- 

 DOZA. DON SANTIAGO ARCOS. CONVENTION OF INDIANS. INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM TIIEM. COLONEL 



RIVAROLA. EXECUTION OF FIVE MEN. BOILING-POINT APPARATUS. SET OUT FOR SANTIAGO BY THE USPALLATA 



PASS. OUR PARTY. VILLAVICENSIO. — USPALLATA, SPECIMENS OF NATURAL HISTORY. ALMOST A DISASTER. 



CRUPPERS NOT USED. NATIVE MOUNTINGS. ADVENTURE WITH A SNAKE. GOITRE. EXPENSES OF THE TWO 



TRIPS ACROSS THE MOUNTAINS. THE MAPS. RETURN HOME. 



After completing all the work to be done in Vendoza before the arrival of my baggage, I 

 learned from a courier that he had passed, near the Rio Cuarto, the train of carts by which I had 

 shipped it; and^ knowing it would not arrive under twelve or fourteen days, I determined to 

 occupy the spare time by going over the Portillo Pass. For this purpose I employed an arriero 

 to take myself and servant, with one load of laggage, to San Jose de Chile and back; and to 

 remain there long enough for me to visit Santiago and make a set of observations for clock 

 error. 



On our arrival at Mendoza the Frenchman took charge of the hotel, but found that more 

 money went out than came in, and when he learned I was giiing, became so unhappy that 

 I consented to the arriero's taking him, making such a bargain between themselves as they 

 could agree upon, for I was tired of paying his way. I do not know that I would have had so 

 much feeling against the man if it had not been that, in consequence of his wearing green 

 spectacles, and being idle when I was at work, he generally passed for the "patron/' while I 

 was considered his steward or assistant. 



Before setting out on this journey I took the precaution to engage another arriero to take me 

 over the Uspallata Pass on my- return, in order that he should have his animals in good 

 condition. 



We left Mendoza on the evening of the Gth of December, and, passing through the village of 

 San Vicente, stopped for the night at a jjlace called La Cruz de Piedra, three leagues south of 

 Mendoza. 



December 7. — A league farther brought us to the outskirts of the town of Lujan, and thence 

 one league through it to the Rio de Mendoza. Crossed this stream where it is divided into 

 three parts, each about ten yards wide and one foot deep ; and two miles farther from there, 

 through cultivated land, we were in a thinly-wooded and uncultivated country. At the 

 nominal distance of eight leagues from Lujan we entered on a rocky range of low hills parallel 

 with the Cordilleras, and, after travelling three leagues, crossed them ; then two leagues across 

 a valley to the skirt of the mountains, where we turned to the southward. From the skirt we 

 saw a singular phenomenon in the plain. At times there were in view as many as twenty col- 

 umns of dust carried up by whirlwinds to a considerable height, and moving about rapidly in 

 different directions. 



