408 



PASSAGE OF CORDILLERA. April, 1835. 



This we found to be the case with the Rio Vacas, and in 

 the morning we crossed it with Httle difficulty. 



The scenery thus far was very uninteresting, compared with 

 that of the Portillo pass. Little can be seen beyond the 

 bare walls of the one grand, flat-bottomed valley, which the 

 road follows up to the highest crest. The valley and the 

 huge rocky mountains were extremely barren : during the 

 two previous nights the poor mules had absolutely nothing 

 to eat ; for excepting a few low resinous bushes, scarcely a 

 plant could be seen. We went over in the course of this 

 day some of the worst passes in the Cordillera. The degree 

 of exaggeration concerning their danger and difficulty is very 

 great. In Chile I was even told, that if I attempted to pass 

 on foot my head would turn giddy, that there was no room 

 to dismount, &c., but I did not see a place where any one 

 might not have walked over backwards, or got off his mule 

 on either side. One of the bad passes called las Animas (the 

 Souls), I had crossed, and did not find out till a day after- 

 wards that it was one of the awful dangers. No doubt there 

 are many parts in which, if the mule should stumble, the 

 rider would be hurled down a great precipice ; but of such 

 a catastrophe there is much less chance than with a man 

 on foot. 1 dare say, in the spring, the laderas,'' or roads, 

 which each year are formed anew across the piles of fallen 

 detritus, are very bad ; but from what I have seen, I suspect 

 the real danger is nothing, and the apparent very little. 

 With cargo mules the case is rather difi'erent ; for the loads 

 project so far, that the animals occasionally running against 

 each other, or against a point of rock, lose their balance and 

 are thrown down the precipice. With regard to crossing 

 the rivers, I can well believe that the difficulty amounts to 

 every degree, till they are impracticable. At this season 

 there was little trouble, but in the summer they must be 

 very bad. I can quite imagine, as Captain Head describes, 

 the different expressions of those who have passed the gulf, 

 and those who are passing. I never heard of any man 

 being drowned, but with loaded mules this is of frequent 



