e 



OF SAN PEDRO NOLASCO. S19 



the water occasionally came over the neck of the 

 mule, and we passed with great difficulty. These 

 poor creatures are dreadfully afraid of crossing 

 these torrents; it is only constant spurring that 

 obliges them to attempt it, and sometimes in the 

 middle of the stream they will refuse to advance 

 for several seconds. When the water is very deep, 

 the arrieros always tie the lasso round their bodies ; 

 but I never could conceive it was any security, 

 because if the torrent will dash a wooden box to 

 pieces, a man^s skull would surely have a very bad 

 chance. I was, therefore, always very glad when 

 I found myself across them ; and, as our lives were 

 insured in London for a large sum of money, I used 

 often to think, that if the insurers could have looked 

 down upon us, the sight of the laderas and of these 

 torrents would have given a quickness to their 

 pulse, a flush to their cheek, and a singing in their 

 ears, very unlike the symptoms of placid calcula- 

 tion. 



Shortly after passing this torrent, we turned 

 towards the south, and began to climb the moun- 

 tain of San Pedro Nolasco, which I can only 

 describe by saying, that it is the steepest ascent 



