356 USPALLATA PASS chap. 



The scenery thus far was very uninteresting, compared with 

 that of the Portillo pass. Little can be seen beyond the bare 

 walls of the one grand, flat-bottomed valley, which the road 

 follows up to the highest crest. The valley and the huge rocky 

 mountains are extremely barren : during the two previous nights 

 the poor mules had absolutely nothing to eat, for excepting a 

 few low resinous bushes, scarcely a plant can be seen. In the 

 course of this day we crossed some of the worst passes in the 

 Cordillera, but their danger has been much exaggerated. I was 

 told that if I attempted to pass on foot, my head would turn 

 giddy, and that there was no room to dismount ; but I did not 

 see a place where any one might not have walked over back- 

 wards, or got off his mule on either side. One of the bad 

 passes, called las Animas (the Souls), I had crossed, and did 

 not find out till a day afterwards that it was one of the awful 

 dangers. No doubt there are many parts in which, if the 

 mule should stumble, the rider would be hurled down a great 

 precipice ; but of this there is little chance. I daresay, in the 

 spring, the " laderas," or roads, which each year are formed anew 

 across the piles of fallen detritus, are very bad ; but from what 

 I saw, I suspect the real danger is nothing. With cargo-mules 

 the case is rather different, for the loads project so far, that the 

 animals, occasionally running against each other, or against a 

 point of rock, lose their balance, and are thrown down the 

 precipices. In crossing the rivers I can well believe that the 

 difficulty may be very great : at this season there was little 

 trouble, but in the summer they must be very hazardous. I can 

 quite imagine, as Sir F. Head describes, the different expressions 

 of those who have passed the gulf, and those who are passing. 

 I never heard of any man being drowned, but with loaded mules 

 it frequently happens. The arxiero tells you to show your 

 mule the best line, and then allow her to cross as she likes : 

 the cargo-mule takes a bad line, and is often lost. 



April ^th. — From the Rio de las Vacas to the Puente del 

 Incas, half a day's journey. As there was pasture for the mules 

 and geology for me, we bivouacked here for the night. When 

 one hears of a natural Bridge, one pictures to oneself some deep 

 and narrow ravine, across which a bold mass of rock has fallen ; 

 or a great arch hollowed out like the vault of a cavern. Instead 

 of this, the Incas Bridge consists of a crust of stratified shingle, 



