36 



THE ANDES. 



under and over the recado. The seat thus 

 formed is something like the roof of a cottage^ 

 requiring an inconvenient expansion of legs. 

 Their stirrups were of wood^ carved and em- 

 bossed^ in the shape of hollow Dutch cheeses. 

 I was struck with the grace and ease of their 

 manners. One of them had a remarkably 

 pleasing countenance^ with quite the air of a 

 gentleman; presenting a still more striking 

 contrast to our friends at Buenos Ayres^ than did 

 the gauchos of Mendoza. They wore the Chilean 

 conical straw-hat^ with a brim so narrow as not 

 to interfere with the lasso when swinging round 

 the head. 



We passed some snow which had fallen 

 from the mountains in an avalanche, and ren- 

 dered the path very dangerous, in skirting 

 around a little lake forty or fifty feet below us. 

 The scenery then became more varied. We 



