BACK TO CIVILISATION 175 



altogether. As for ourselves, we were most kindly entertained by 

 the Italian engineers, and enjoyed the luxuries of a tin of butter, 

 biscuit, bread, tea, milk, sugar and some cognac. Flies abounded 

 and bothered us as we ate our meal on a packing-case, an ostenta- 

 tious comfort which made us feel very civilised. 



We were now in the valley of the Chico, which is a large 

 stream with a swift current, its canadon bordered with bare ridges. 

 It felt like old times to be in a river valley once more, reminding 

 us of those we had passed through on our way to Lake Buenos 

 Aires. We saw geese again, of which I shot two, and also a 

 pigeon. The valley here was very rich with red seed-bearing grass, 

 and beyond, nearer to the water, a glorious green paniano, dotted 

 with deep clear pools. 



Before parting with the Italians they presented us with some 

 sugar and I gave them some tea and tobacco. The valley 

 through which we marched continued to be very fertile. The 

 grass was like that of an English meadow with sweet far-off 

 scents, but lacking the dewiness of our English scents of wood 

 and wold. 



On January 7 we travelled eleven leagues, taking a short cut 

 through a bare canadon of dry mud-hills. Leaving this behind us 

 we again came in sight of the River Chico and crossed a high 

 pampa of yellow tussocks and gravel. The morning dawned hot 

 with the usual accompaniment of mosquitoes and sand-flies. As 

 we sighted the river this heat gave place to a fresh rain-smelling 

 wind, inexpressibly grateful. 



In the afternoon, as we rode along, there appeared against the 

 sky a keen peak of rock — Sierra Ventana. We had long been 

 looking forward to our first glimpse of it, knowing it would be a 

 sign that we were nearing civilisation. Blue, distant, perhaps 

 thirty miles away, behind the basalt hills, it raised its strange 

 castle-like head, only the castle is of nature's building, not man's. 

 I think we all welcomed this token of the old kindly inhabited 

 world again, after our months spent on houseless plains and 

 inhospitable mountains. 



A herd of guanaco some twenty strong showed at almost the 

 same moment. I galloped forward, feeling glad that our dinner 



