120 



CHARLES DARWIN 



calcareous stone and loose detritus. I do not think Nature 

 ever made a more solitary, desolate pile of*4ock;— it well 

 deserves its name of Hurtado, or separated. The mountain 

 is steep, extremely rugged, and broken, and so entirely desti- 

 tute of trees, and even bushes, that we actually could not 

 make a skewer to stretch out our meat over the fire of thistle- 

 stalks. 1 The strange aspect of this mountain is contrasted 

 by the sea-like plain, which not only abuts against its steep 

 sides, but likewise separates the parallel ranges. The uni- 

 formity of the colouring gives an extreme quietness to the 

 v ie W ;__ the whitish grey of the quartz rock, and the light 

 brown of the withered grass of the plain, being unrelieved 

 by any brighter tint. From custom, one expects to see in 

 the neighbourhood of a lofty and bold mountain, a broken 

 country strewed over with huge fragments. Here nature 

 shows that the last movement before the bed of the sea is 

 changed into dry land may sometimes be one of tranquillity. 

 Under these circumstances I was curious to observe how 

 far from the parent rock any pebbles could be found. On 

 the shores of Bahia Blanca, and near the settlement, there 

 were some of quartz, which certainly must have come from 

 this source : the distance is forty-five miles. 



The dew, which in the early part of the night wetted the 

 saddle-cloths under which we slept, was in the morning 

 frozen. The plain, though appearing horizontal, had in- 

 sensibly sloped up to a height of between 800 and 900 feet 

 above the sea. In the morning (9th of September) the guide 

 told me to ascend the nearest ridge, which he thought would 

 lead me to the four peaks that crown the summit. The climb- 

 ing up such rough rocks was very fatiguing ; the ^ sides 

 were so indented, that what was gained in one five minutes 

 was often lost in the next. At last, when I reached the ridge, 

 my disappointment was extreme in finding a precipitous 

 valley as deep as the plain, which cut the chain transversely 

 in two, and separated me from the four points. This valley 

 is very narrow, but flat-bottomed, and it forms a fine horse- 

 pass for the Indians, as it connects the plains on the north- 

 ern and southern sides of the range. Having descended, and 



1 1 call these thistle-stalks for the want of a more correct name. I believe it is 

 a species of Eryngium. 



