56 



THE ROAD. 



which he either brought from Lima, or took yesterday in the damp, 

 cold mine. He would drink as much cold water as he wanted, though 

 our friends held up their hands in astonishment, and said he would kill 

 himself. Fire in a stove is very comfortable; the thermometer, during 

 the day, standing at 50° Fah. 



May 31. — Beautiful day. Ther., at 5 a. in., 36°. The general 

 character of the rock is red porphyry. There is grass for pasturage ; 

 and the hill sides are covered with a bush of some eight or ten feet 

 high, bearing bunches of blue flowers, resembling our lilac. There are 

 several kinds of stinging nettle, one of which, that bears a small yellow 

 flower, Malarin says, will cause gangrene and death. I had no disposi- 

 tion to try it ; but I doubt the statement. So dangerous a thing would 

 scarcely be so plentiful where the bare-legged herdsman and miner are 

 exposed to it. Returned with Gibbon to San Mateo. 



June 1. — Found Richards sick and the muleteer growling at the 

 delay ; loaded up, and got off at eleven. At twelve the valley narrowed 

 to a dell of about fifty feet in width ; the stream occupying its whole 

 breadth, with the exception of a narrow, but smooth and level mule- 

 path on its right bank. This is a very remarkable place. On each 

 side the rock of red porphyry rises perpendicularly for full five hundred 

 feet. In places it overhangs the stream and road. The traveller feels 

 as if he were passing through some tunnel of the Titans. The upper 

 exit from the dell is so steep that steps have been cut in the rock for 

 the mule's feet; and the stream rushes down the rock-obstructed 

 declivity in foaming fury, flinging clouds of white spray over the trav- 

 eller, and rendering the path slippery and dangerous. 



Passed Chiglla and Bella Vista, mining haciendas. The country is 

 quite thickly settled, there being houses in sight all the way between 

 these two places. The barley here does not give grain, but is cut for 

 fodder. The alfalfa has given way to short, thin grass ; and we begin 

 to find difficulty in getting food for the beasts. We saw cabbages 

 growing in the gardens of Chiglla, which is a straggling village of 

 some three or four hundred inhabitants. Just after passing Chiglla the 

 mountains looked low, giving the appearance of a rolling country, and 

 were clothed with verdure to the top. Upon turning a corner of the 

 road the snow-covered summits of the Cordillera were close before us, 

 also looking low ; and when the snow or verdure suffered the earth to 

 be seen, this was of a deep pink color. The general character of the 

 rock is conglomerate. We stopped at four at the tambo of Accha- 

 huarcu, where we pitched and bought barley straw (alcaser) at the rate 

 of twelve and a half cents the armful, called " tercio," which is just 



