THE STEAIT OF MAGELLAN. 393 



spaces about four inches wide, so as to present a rather 

 prison-like appearance. These interspaces were not glazed, 

 but hinged shutters were attached on the inner side of the 

 door, and closed at night to exclude the cold. We found 

 rooms and beds alike remarkably clean and wonderfully 

 comfortable, and altogether, from our experience of this 

 hotel, I can strongly recommend it to the attention of 

 visitors. 



The morning of the 2d was remarkably fine, being clear, 

 cool, and invigorating. After an early breakfast we spent an 

 hour in a vain attempt to procure horses or mules, only 

 succeeding at last in arranging that we should be supplied 

 with them on the morrow. We thereafter resolved on stroll- 

 ing out along the road leading into the Cumbre Pass, and 

 spending the day in the open air. Leaving the town, we 

 slowly wended our way along a road following the course of 

 the river Aconcagua, and bounded on each side by low walls 

 of " adobe " (sun-dried bricks made of mud and straw, and 

 frequently of very large size. Some which we saw were at 

 least three feet long, by a foot broad and two feet thick.) 

 These walls were thatched on the top with brushwood, to 

 prevent the rains washing them away, an arrangement which 

 communicated to them rather an odd effect. We passed a 

 vineyard,, where the people were engaged in bruising the 

 purple grapes in a kind of winepress for the manufacture of 

 " chicha," or some kind of country wine. The bunches of grapes 

 were heaped on a sort of hurdle made of saplings, laid 

 on the top of a vat of bullock's hide placed on the ground 

 in an inclined plane. The men bruised the bunches over 

 the hurdle, so that the pulp, juice, and a considerable part of 

 the rind also, were squeezed through into the vat below, 

 where they formed a large mass on which numbers of bees 



