126 



SIERRA VENTANA. 



Sept. 1833. 



desolate pile of rock ; — ^it well deserves its name of Hurtado, 

 or separated. The mountain is steep^ extremely rugged, and 

 broken, and so entirely destitute of trees and even bushes, 

 that we actually could not find a skewer to stretch out our 

 meat over the fire made of thistle* stalks. The strange 

 aspect of this mountain is contrasted by the sea-like plain, 

 which not only abuts against its steep sides, but likewise 

 separates the parallel ranges. The uniformity of the colour- 

 ing gives, also, an extreme quietness to the view; — the 

 whitish gray of the quartz rock, and the light brown of the 

 withered grass of the plain, being unrelieved by any brighter ' 

 tint. From custom, one expects to see in the neighbourhood 

 of a lofty and bold mountain a broken country, strewed over 

 with huge fragments. Here nature shows, that the last 

 movement before the bed of the sea is changed into dry 

 land, may sometimes be one of tranquillity. Under these 

 circumstances, I was curious to observe how far from 

 the parent rock any pebbles could be found. On the 

 shores of Bahia Blanca, and near the settlement, there were 

 some of quartz, which certainly must have come from this 

 source : the distance is forty-five miles. 



The dew, which in the early part of the night wetted the 

 saddle-cloths, under which we slept, was in the morning 

 frozen. From the sharpness of the cold, I supposed we were 

 already at a considerable elevation, although, to the eye, the 

 plain had appeared horizontal. In the morning (9th Sep- 

 tember) the guide told me to ascend the nearest ridge, which 

 he thought would lead me to the four peaks that crown the 

 summit. The climbing up such rough rocks was very 

 fatiguing, the sides were so indented, that, what was gained 

 in one five minutes, was often lost in the next. At last, 

 when I reached the ridge, my disappointment was extreme 

 in finding a precipitous valley as deep as the plain, which cut 

 the chain transversely in two, and separated me from the four 



* I call these thistle stalks for the want of a more correct name. I 

 believe it is a species of Eryngium. 



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