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 Precipices.
In crossing the rivers
I can well believe that the difficulty may be very great:
At
this season there was little trouble, but in the summer they
must be very hazardous. I can quite imagine, as Sir F.
Head describes, the different expressions of those who _have_
passed the gulf, and those who _are_ passing. I never heard
of any man being drowned, but with loaded mules it frequently
happens. The arriero tells you to show your mule
the best line, and then allow her to cross as she likes: the
cargo-mule takes a bad line, and is often lost.
April 4th. - From the Rio de las Vacas to the Puente del
Incas, half a day's journey. As there was pasture for the
mules, and geology for me, we bivouacked here for the
night. When one hears of a natural Bridge, one pictures
to one's self some deep and narrow ravine, across which a
bold mass of rock has fallen; or a great arch hollowed out
like the vault of a cavern. Instead of this, the Incas
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 met by earth
and stones falling down from the opposite cliff.
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