April, 1835. 



INDIAN RUINS. 



409 



occurrence. The arriero tells you to show your mule the 

 best line, and then allow her to cross as she chooses ; the 

 cargo mule takes a bad line, and is often lost. 



April 4th. — From the Rio de las Vacas to the Puente 

 del Inca, half a day^s journey. As there was pasture for the 

 mules, and geology for me, we bivouacked for the night. 

 When one hears of a natural bridge, one pictures to oneself 

 some deep and narrow ravine, across which a bold mass of 

 rock has fallen ; or a great arch hollowed out like the vault of 

 a cavern. Instead of this, the Inca^s bridge consists of a 

 crust of stratified shingle, cemented together by the deposits 

 of the neighbouring hot springs. It appears as if the stream 

 had scooped out a channel on one side, leaving an overhang- 

 ing ledge, which was at last met by the earth and stones 

 falling down from the opposite cliff. Certainly an oblique 

 junction, as would happen in such case, was very distinct on 

 one side. The bridge of the Incas is by no means worthy of 

 the great monarchs whose name it bears. 



Close by, there were some ruins of Indian buildings. 

 These occur in several other places ; the most perfect, which 

 I saw, being the Ruinas de Tambillos. Small square rooms 

 were there huddled together, but placed in distinct groups. 

 Some of the doorways were yet standing : they were formed 

 by a cross slab of stone, but only raised about three feet 

 high. Ulloa, in his " Noticias Americanas," remarks on 

 the lowness of the doors in the ancient Peruvian dwellings. 

 These houses, when perfect, must have been capable of con- 

 taining a considerable number of persons. Tradition says, 

 they were used as halting-places for the Incas, when they 

 crossed these mountains. Traces of Indian habitations have 

 been discovered in many parts of the Cordillera, where it 

 does not appear probable, that they were constructed as 

 mere resting-places; but yet where the land is as utterly 

 unfit for any kind of cultivation as it is near the Tambillos 

 or Puente del Inca. In the Portillo pass I saw one group of 

 such ruins. In the ravine of Jajuel, near Aconcagua, where 

 there is no pass, I heard of numerous remains situated 



