The Scene On All Sides Showed Desolation, Brightened And
Made Palpable By A Clear, Unclouded Sky.
For a time such
scenery is sublime, but this feeling cannot last, and then it
becomes uninteresting.
We bivouacked at the foot of the
"primera linea," or the first line of the partition of waters.
The streams, however, on the east side do not flow to the
Atlantic, but into an elevated district, in the middle of which
there is a large saline, or salt lake; thus forming a little
Caspian Sea at the height, perhaps, of ten thousand feet. Where
we slept, there were some considerable patches of snow, but
they do not remain throughout the year. The winds in these
lofty regions obey very regular laws every day a fresh
breeze blows up the valley, and at night, an hour or two after
sunset, the air from the cold regions above descends as
through a funnel. This night it blew a gale of wind, and the
temperature must have been considerably below the freezing-
point, for water in a vessel soon became a block of ice. No
clothes seemed to oppose any obstacle to the air; I suffered
very much from the cold, so that I could not sleep, and in
the morning rose with my body quite dull and benumbed.
In the Cordillera further southward, people lose their lives
from snow-storms; here, it sometimes happens from another
cause. My guide, when a boy of fourteen years old, was
passing the Cordillera with a party in the month of May;
and while in the central parts, a furious gale of wind arose,
so that the men could hardly cling on their mules, and stones
were flying along the ground.
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