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DESCENT OF THE CTJMBRE. 



would affect my breathing, but to prove how 

 very easily such things may be accomplished, and 

 also, because I differ in opinion with many other 

 travellers respecting the great dependence to be 

 placed on the mules, for I would never trust one 

 where there was any dangerous descent; in the 

 torrents, certainly they are wonderful animals, 

 but for descending, give me my own legs, for I 

 would much sooner trust to them; however, at 

 the Cumbre, there is not the slightest danger, for 

 the substance is so loose, that if a man were to 

 slip, excepting he absolutely tumbled head over 

 heels, it would be impossible for him to go very 

 far. J half ran, half walked, the whole way 

 down, arriving at the bottom about a quarter 

 past eleven, where the thermometer stood at 80°, 

 making a difference in the temperature of 30° 

 in half an hour. My readers may recollect my 

 description of ascending the Cumbre in the win- 

 ter, when the whole Cordillera was blocked up 

 with snow, and we were obliged to desert our 

 mules at the Punta las Vacas, but not until we 



