118 PEON FOUND NEARLY DEAD 



and slippery^ it was dangerous to venture up ; 

 therefore, our peons set to work, and in little 

 more than an hour, we had a flight of steps 

 cut in the snow in angular directions the whole 

 way up the mountain. One of the peons, in 

 coming down again, slipped his footing and 

 rolled over and over completely to the bottom : 

 fortunately for him he had not his load on his 

 back, and he fell clear of some rocks which here 

 and there just peeped above the snow. I found 

 the high wind very distressing to my eyes, and 

 the only relief I could find was by looking up, 

 as opportunity offered, at the beautiful clear blue 

 sky above, which, of course, caused me many 

 tumbles in the snow. 



At 3 P.M. we arrived at the casucha Paramillo, 

 five leagues from Pujios. Our loaded peons 

 did not all arrive till about six, and as the last two 

 were coming in, they picked up one of our young 

 lads laying in the snow just going off to sleep. 

 Fatigue and drowsiness came over him, and he 

 lay down : had he remained a quarter of an hour 



