ACULEO. 



171 



bales, strongly tied round with a net-work of 

 thongs, becomes the jerked beef of commerce. 



After breakfast we varied our amusements, by 

 forming a party to ride to the Lake of Aculeo. 

 We had to wind for some time through the val- 

 lies of the lower Andes, before reaching the Lake, 

 which lay placidly amongst the mountains. Per- 

 haps it is the smoothness and delicacy of finish, 

 as it were, of a mountain lake, together with its 

 unassuming solitude, compared with the bold and 

 rugged majesty of the surrounding scenery, which 

 give it so much grace and beauty. It may be, 

 too, that a scene like this, altogether without ar- 

 tificial embellishment, is more engaging from its 

 simplicity than one enriched with towns, and or- 

 namented with villas and gardens, and other 

 works of m^n, in the brilliant manner of the Ita- 

 lian lakes. 



In strictness, however, the Lake of Aculeo is 

 not altogether desolate ; for we could see here and 

 there a cottage amongst the luxuriant groves skirt- 

 ing its margin on every side. But these served 

 rather, T fancied, only to augment the solitude ; 

 and the eye wandered more frequently to the lofty 



