VI SIERRA VENTANA 113 



foreigner, previous to my visit, had ascended this mountain ; 

 and indeed very few of the soldiers at Bahia Blanca knew 

 anything about it. Hence we heard of beds of coal, of gold 

 and silver, of caves, and of forests, all of which inflamed my 

 curiosity, only to disappoint it. The distance from the posta 

 was about six leagues, over a level plain of the same character 

 as before. The ride was, however, interesting, as the mountain 

 began to show its true form. When we reached the foot of 

 the main ridge, we had much difficulty in finding any water, 

 and we thought we should have been obhged to have passed 

 the night without any. At last we discovered some by looking 

 close to the mountain, for at the distance even of a few hundred 

 yards, the streamlets were buried and entirely lost in the 

 friable calcareous stone and loose detritus. I do not think 

 Nature ever made a more solitary, desolate pile of rock ; — it 

 well deserves its name of Hurtado^ or separated. The 

 mountain is steep, extremely rugged, and broken, and so 

 entirely destitute of trees, and even bushes, that we actually 

 could not make a skewer to stretch out our meat over the fire 

 of thistle- stalks.^ The strange aspect of this mountain is 

 contrasted by the sea-like plain, which not only abuts against 

 its steep^^kles, but likewise separates the parallel ranges. The 

 uniformity of the colouring gives an extreme quietness to the 

 view ; — the whitish -gray of the quartz rock, and the light 

 brown of the withered grass of the plain, being unrelieved 

 by any brighter tint. From custom one expects to see in the 

 neighbourhood of a lofty and bold mountain a broken country 

 strewed over with huge fragments. Here Nature shows that 

 the last movement before the bed of the sea is changed into 

 dry land may sometimes be one of tranquillity. Under these 

 circumstances I was curious to observe how far from the parent 

 rock any pebbles could be found. On the shores of Bahia 

 Blanca, and near the settlement, there were some of quartz, 

 which certainly must have come from this source : the distance 

 is forty-five miles. 



The dew, which in the early part of the night wetted the 

 saddle-cloths tinder which we slept, was in the morning frozen. 

 The plain, though appearing horizontal, had insensibly sloped 



^ I call these thistle-slalks for the want of a more correct name. I believe it is 

 a species of Eryngium. 



I 



