Some Years Ago, A Passenger Endeavoured To Escape Detection, By Making A Long Circuit Over A Neighbouring Mountain; But This Indian, Having By Chance Crossed His Track, Followed It For The Whole Day Over Dry And Very Stony Hills, Till At Last He Came On His Prey Hidden In A Gully.

We here heard that the silvery clouds, which we had admired from the bright region above, had poured down torrents of rain.

The valley from this point gradually opened, and the hills became mere water-worn hillocks compared to the giants behind: it then expanded into a gently sloping plain of shingle, covered with low trees and bushes. This talus, although appearing narrow, must be nearly ten miles wide before it blends into the apparently dead level Pampas. We passed the only house in this neighbourhood, the Estancia of Chaquaio: and at sunset we pulled up in the first snug corner, and there bivouacked.

March 25th. - I was reminded of the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, by seeing the disk of the rising sun, intersected by an horizon level as that of the ocean. During the night a heavy dew fell, a circumstance which we did not experience within the Cordillera. The road proceeded for some distance due east across a low swamp; then meeting the dry plain, it turned to the north towards Mendoza. The distance is two very long days' journey. Our first day's journey was called fourteen leagues to Estacado, and the second seventeen to Luxan, near Mendoza.

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