34 



THE ANDES. 



was no moon. The overhanging mountains 

 appeared to touch the heavens and to have 

 assumed strange and uncouth shapes^ for the 

 light in this dismal situation waste and wild/' 

 was only darkness visible/' and if I had not 

 been too susceptible of the bitter frost, I could 

 have fancied myself reposing at the very bot- 

 tom of the deep and hollow crater of Mount 

 Vesuvius. At intervals the silence was broken 

 by loose stones rattling down the torrent, and 

 now and then the madrina's bell was heard 

 tinkling far off, as she wandered about for a 

 scanty supply of grass. In defiance of these 

 strange sights and sounds and fancies, I fell off 

 again into a sounder sleep, which lasted till the 

 dawn, when I rose and found my poncho quite 

 stiff with the frost. 



I had picked up a large stick at Chacayes, 

 which had served me well up to this place, but 



