From The Natural Slope To Seaward Of These Plains, They
Are Very Easily Irrigated, And In Consequence Singularly
Fertile.
Without this process the land would produce scarcely
anything, for during the whole summer the sky is cloudless.
The
Mountains and hills are dotted over with bushes and
low trees, and excepting these the vegetation is very scanty.
Each landowner in the valley possesses a certain portion of
hill-country, where his half-wild cattle, in considerable
numbers, manage to find sufficient pasture. Once every year
there is a grand "rodeo," when all the cattle are driven down,
counted, and marked, and a certain number separated to be
fattened in the irrigated fields. Wheat is extensively
cultivated, and a good deal of Indian corn: a kind of bean is,
however, the staple article of food for the common labourers.
The orchards produce an overflowing abundance of peaches
figs, and grapes. With all these advantages, the inhabitants
of the country ought to be much more prosperous than they
are.
16th. - The mayor-domo of the Hacienda was good enough
to give me a guide and fresh horses; and in the morning we
set out to ascend the Campana, or Bell Mountain, which is
6400 feet high. The paths were very bad, but both the
geology and scenery amply repaid the trouble. We reached
by the evening, a spring called the Agua del Guanaco, which
is situated at a great height. This must be an old name,
for it is very many years since a guanaco drank its waters.
During the ascent I noticed that nothing but bushes grew
on the northern slope, whilst on the southern slope there was
a bamboo about fifteen feet high.
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