4 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
of meat, cooked [over hot embers, a disk often very savoury, 
with eggs, wine of Mendoza, bread and coffee, all join around 
the fire for a chat and smoke before going to sleep, which is 
truly enjoyed on camp beds under a verandah. A large fire 
burns all night in the middle of the enclosure, exaggerating, by 
its light, the forms of the gauchos in their coloured ponchos 
before it, or of the coach and sleepers around ; making a 
strangely picturesque scene. 
At daybreak the bugle of the conductor stirs the travellers 
out of a heavy sleep, to wonder where they are ; and after much 
merriment, and some grumbling at the early start, all rise for 
•coffee, and to make arrangements for breakfast on the road, 
which quickly passes the time. Away again for the open 
.country, just as the sun is rising, and throwing his first straight 
rays and long shadows across the wild scene. The road now 
goes across a country that bears many traces of water action ; 
now over pebbles, then over sand, until some high ground is 
reached, where the Sierra de San Luis first comes into view. 
Here the wild verbena is found in its home, and truly beautiful 
the patches of colour look after the dulness of the scenery 
left behind. The variety of the shrubs, and their richness of 
growth, make a fitting foreground to the scene beyond ; hills 
in long undulations stretching as far as the eye can follow 
towards the w^est, with the Sierra de San Luis a little to the 
north and on the right. 
This Sierra is a continuation of the line formed by the 
Sierras de Ullapez and de Los Llanos, stretching away north 
into the province of La Bioja, made up of schistose metamor- 
phic rocks, granite, and sandstone, carrying large veins of 
quartz, and rich in metals — copper, lead, gold, silver, and 
nickeL The little town of San Luis, 3700 inhabitants, stands 
2500 feet above the sea, and is at the foot of a picturesque 
peak rising 2000 feet above it, from the top of which, in clear 
weather, Aconcagua, 23,000 feet in . height, can be seen 
nearly 200 miles to the west. The people of this province 
have suffered much from Indian raids and civil war ; but 
among them may be seen many good faces, and they exhibit a 
dignity of manner that makes a pleasing contrast when com- 
pared with the inhabitants of some other parts of the country. 
Grapes are abundant, and oranges, peaches, and figs, plentiful 
in season. The climate of the Sierra is said to be good for con- 
sumptive patients ; that of La Carolina, a town further north, 
and at an elevation of 4900 feet above the sea, being peculiarly 
suitable; the temperature here is from 60° to 70° Fahrenheit; 
the air is dry and bracing, the scenery fine, and good food is 
procured from the valleys below. 
On the road from the Sierra de San Luis to the steppes of 
