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This we found to be the case with the Rio Vacas, and in
the morning we crossed it with little difficulty.
The scenery thus far was very uninteresting, compared with
that of the Portillo pass. Little can be seen beyond the
bare walls of the one grand, flat-bottomed valley, which the
road follows up to the highest crest. The valley and the
huge rocky mountains were extremely barren : during the
two previous nights the poor mules had absolutely nothing
to ea t; for excepting a few low resinous bushes, scarcely a
plant could be seen. We went over in the course of this
day some of the worst passes in the Cordillera. The degree
of exaggeration concerning their danger and difficulty is very
great. In Chile I was even told, that if I attempted to pass
on foot my head would turn giddy, that there was no room
to dismount, &c., but I did not see a place where any one
might not have walked over backwards, or got off his mule
on either side. One of the bad passes called las Animas (the
Souls), I had crossed, and did not find out till a day afterwards
that it was one of the awful dangers. No doubt there
are many parts in whieli, if the mule should stumble, the
rider would be hurled down a great precipice; but of such
a catastrophe there is much less chance than with a man
on foot. 1 dare say, in the spring, the “ laderas,” or roads,
which each year are formed anew across the piles of fallen
detritus, are very bad; but from what I have seen, I suspect
the real danger is nothing, and the apparent very little.
With cargo mules the case is rather different; for the loads
project so far, that the animals occasionally running against
each other, or against a point of rock, lose their balance and
are thrown down the precipice. With regard to crossing
the rivers, I can well believe that the difficulty amounts to
every degree, till they are impracticable. At this season
there was little trouble, but in the summer they must be
very bad. I can quite imagine, as Captain Head describes,
the different expressions of those who have passed the gulf,
and those who are passing. 1 never heard of any man
being drowned, hut with loaded mules this is of frequent
occurrence. The arriero tells you to show your mule the
best line, and then allow her to cross as she chooses; the
cargo mule takes a bad line, and is often lost.
A p r i l 4 t i i .—From the Rio de las Vacas to the Puente
del Inca, half a day’s journey. As there was pasture for the
mules, and geology for me, we bivouacked for the night.
When one hears of a natural bridge, one pictures to oneself
some deep and narrow ravine, across which a bold mass of
roclv has fallen; or a great arch hollowed out like the vault of
a cavern. Instead of this, the Inca’s bridge consists of a
crust of stratified shingle, cemented together by the deposits
of the neighbouring hot springs. It appears as if the stream
had scooped out a channel on one side, leaving an overhanging
ledge, which was at last met by the earth and stones
falling down from the opposite cliff. Certainly an oblique
junction, as would happen in such case, was very distinct on
one side. The bridge of the Incas is by no means worthy of
the great monarchs whose name it bears.
Close by, there were some ruins of Indian buildings.
These occur in several other places; the most perfect, which
I saw, being the Ruinas de TambiUos. Small square rooms
were there huddled together, but placed in distinct groups.
Some of the doorways were yet standing: they were formed
by a cross slab of stone, but only raised about three feet
high. Ulloa, in his “ Noticias Americanas,” remarks on
the lowness of the doors in the ancient Peruvian dwellings.
These houses, when perfect, must have been capable of containing
a considerable number of persons. Tradition says,
they were used as halting-places for the Incas, when they
crossed these mountains. Traces of Indian habitations have
been discovered in many parts of the Cordillera, where it
does not appear probable, that they were constructed as
mere resting-places; but yet where the land is as utterly
unfit for any kind of cultivation as it is near the TambiUos
or Puente del Inca. In the Portillo pass I saw one group of
such ruins. In the ravine of Jajuel, near Aconcagua, where
there is no pass, I heard of numerous remains situated
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