THE JUMP. 



117 



July 15.— We got alfalfa for our mules, but it is now getting 

 very scarce. The valley, after leaving San Rafael, is very narrow, and 

 the road rises and falls along the bare flanks of the mountains. The 

 character of the rock is a dark schist; the growth, willows — palma 

 christi — maguey, (a species of cactus, with a very long, broad, yet 

 sharp-pointed leaf,) which throws out from the centre of a clump of 

 leaves, a light stalk of three or four inches diameter at the base, and 

 frequently thirty feet in height. This flowers towards the top, and bears 

 a sort of nut-like fruit. The stem is much used for roofing houses, and 

 the broad, thick leaves serve for thatch. 



We shot at condors hovering over a dead mule, and saw a small 

 hawk of variegated and pretty plumage, which we had before seen near 

 Oroya. About ten miles from San Rafael we were crossing the highest 

 part of the chain. An opening in the mountains to the right gave us a 

 view of some splendid snow-clad peaks. After an hour's ride over a pre- 

 cipitous and broken path, rendered dangerous in some places by the sliding 

 of the earth and soft rock from above upon it, we commenced a very 

 sharp descent, which brought us, in fifteen minutes, to fruit-trees and a 

 patch of sugar-cane on the banks of the stream. The sudden transi- 

 tion from rugged mountain peaks, where there was no cultivation, to 

 a tropical vegetation, was marvellous. A few miles further on we 

 crossed the boundary-line between the provinces of Pasco and Hua- 

 nuco. The transition is agreeable, and I was glad to exchange the 

 mining for the agricultural country. At half-past four, we arrived at 

 the town of A?nbo, a village of one thousand inhabitants, situated at 

 the junction of the rivers Huacar and Huallaga. The former stream 

 comes down a ravine to the westward; each is about thirty-five yards 

 broad, and uniting, they pour their waters by the town with great velo- 

 city. The rock of this region is mostly an argillaceous schist, though 

 just above Ambo the road was bordered by a perpendicular hill of beau- 

 tiful red sand-stone. The strata all along this route are nearly north 

 and south in their directions, and have an inclination upwards towards 

 the north of from forty to seventy degrees. 



Two miles from Ambo, on the right or opposite bank of the river, is 

 anoiher very pretty little village, almost hidden in the luxuriant vegeta- 

 tion about it. The whole valley now becomes very beautiful. From 

 the road on which we were travelling to the river's brink, (a breadth of 

 quarter of a mile,) the land (which is a rich river bottom) is laid off 

 into alternate fields of sugar-cane and alfal fa. The blended green and. 

 yellow of this growth, divided by willows, interspersed with fruit trees, 

 and broken into wavy lines by the serpentine course of the river, pre- 



