THE GREAT CORDILLERA. 



141 



notion of being beaten with a horse's leg that has 

 urged her on, I cannot tell you/^ 



We continued our course together, and descend- 

 ing the hill, came to the district in which the Us- 

 pallata Mines are situated. The climate of the 

 country in which these mines are situated is what 

 would naturally be expected from its latitude and 

 elevation. The former places it under a hot sun, 

 the latter imparts to it a considerable degree of 

 cold ; and as the air is both dry and rarefied, there 

 is little refraction, and consequently the heat and 

 light of day vanish almost as soon as the sun is 

 below the horizon. In visiting these mines in winter 

 we found the days hotter than the summer in Eng- 

 land, when at night the water constantly froze hard 

 by our sides as we slept crowded together in the 

 small hut. The whole of the country is the most 

 barren I ever witnessed, and from this singular 

 cause, that it never rains there*. 



* Without attempting to explain the cause of this pheno- 

 menon, the following are some of the facts on which the state- 

 ment is founded : — 



1. The huts at several of the mines are built exactly across 

 the ravine, in such a manner, that if water was ever to come 



