394 



PASSAGE OF CORDILLERA. March, 1835. 



for tlie puna ; as this vegetable has sometimes been given in 

 Europe for pectoral complaints, it may possibly be of real 

 service : — for my part, I found nothing so good as the fossil 

 shells ! 



When about halfway up we met a large party with seventy 

 loaded mules. It was interesting to hear the wild cries of 

 the muleteers, and to watch the long string descending ; they 

 appeared so diminutive, there being nothing but the bleak 

 mountains with which they could be compared. When near 

 the summit, the wind, as generally happens there, was im- 

 petuous and extremely cold. On each side of the ridge we 

 had to pass over broad bands of snow, which perpetually lie 

 there, and were now soon to be covered by a fresh layer. 

 When we reached the crest and looked backwards, a glorious 

 view was presented. The atmosphere resplendently clear; 

 the sky an intense blue ; the profound valleys ; the wild 

 broken forms ; the heaps of ruins, piled up during the lapse, 

 of ages ; the bright-coloured rocks, contrasted with the quiet 

 mountains of snow ; all these together produced a scene I 

 never could have figured to my imagination. Neither plant 

 nor bird, excepting a few condors wheeling around the higher 

 pinnacles, distracted the attention from the inanimate mass. 

 I felt glad I was alone : it was like watching a thunderstorm, 

 or hearing a chorus of the Messiah in full orchestra. 



On several of the patches of perpetual snow, I found the 

 Protococcus nivalis, or red snow, so well known from the 

 accounts of Arctic navigators. My attention was called to 

 the circumstance by observing the footseps of the mules 

 stained a pale red, as if their hoofs had been slightly bloody. 

 I at first thought it was owing to dust blown from the 

 surrounding mountains of red porphyry ; for from the mag- 

 nifying power of the crystals of snow, the groups of these 

 atom-like plants appeared like coarse particles. The snow 

 was coloured only where it had thawed very rapidly, or had 

 been accidentally crushed. A small portion of it rubbed on 

 paper communicated a faint rose tinge, mingled with a little 

 brick red. I placed some of the snow between the leaves of 



