THE PAMPAS* 



233 



sitting at one end of it nursing a child. It had 

 been born only just before our arrival. The 

 good man was giving it milk out of a wooden 

 spoon. As soon as I had buckled on my spurs 

 (for I slept in every other article of dress) I 

 went out, and saw an old woman boiling milk 

 for us over a fire. I gave the lady in the straw 

 some tea, for which she seemed exceedingly 

 thankful, and I then sat down upon the ground 

 to breakfast. 



Yesterday, while at the distance of two 

 hundred and forty miles from Mendoza, we 

 had perceived the distant snowy heights of 

 the Andes against the deep blue sky; and 

 now they appeared more distinctly. These 

 mountains have been seen, without a teles- 

 cope, from a position near the Punta de St. 

 Luis, above three hundred miles distant. The 

 day of my arrival at St. Luis I had observed, in 

 the distant horizon, what I conceived to be 



