CHAPTER XI 



ALONG THE STREAil OF DEATH 



^E learned that the driecl-up stream-bed, at 

 whose junction with the barranca stream 

 we camped, was known by the sinister 

 name of El Arroyo del Muerte, — The 

 Dry Stream of Death, — and the name was well given ; 

 not, however, because of any lack of life along its 

 sinuous course, even during this dry season of the 

 year. In years past, its winding stream-bed was much 

 used as a short-cut trail, and mule-trains of fifty and 

 a hundred animals often passed and repassed through 

 it. At the beginning of the rainy season, somewhere 

 up on the volcano's slope the water would collect, 

 held back by debris, ruitil the great weight broke all 

 barriers and the flood poured, like an avalanche, down 

 the arrojio, carrying away men and animals, like mere 

 chips in its seething waters. Hence the appellation 

 del Muerte. 



But the rainy season was yet far off, and we found 

 the recesses and dark defiles of this dry waterM-ay a 

 most delightful place for exploration. After the summer 

 rains cease, the annual torrent dwindles to a mere 

 trickle, and even this at last filters through the porous 



«4 228 ^ 



