This Mountain Is Visible From
The Anchorage At Bahia Blanca; And Capt.
Fitz Roy calculates
its height to be 3340 feet - an altitude very remarkable
on this eastern side of the continent.
I am not aware
that any foreigner, previous to my visit, had ascended this
mountain; and indeed very few of the soldiers at Bahia
Blanca knew anything about it. Hence we heard of beds
of coal, of gold and silver, of caves, and of forests, all of
which inflamed my curiosity, only to disappoint it. The
distance from the posta was about six leagues over a level
plain of the same character as before. The ride was, however,
interesting, as the mountain began to show its true
form. When we reached the foot of the main ridge, we had
much difficulty in finding any water, and we thought we
should have been obliged to have passed the night without
any. At last we discovered some by looking close to the
mountain, for at the distance even of a few hundred yards
the streamlets were buried and entirely lost in the friable
calcareous stone and loose detritus. I do not think Nature
ever made a more solitary, desolate pile of rock; - it well
deserves its name of _Hurtado_, or separated. The mountain
is steep, extremely rugged, and broken, and so entirely destitute
of trees, and even bushes, that we actually could not
make a skewer to stretch out our meat over the fire of thistle-
stalks. [1] The strange aspect of this mountain is contrasted
by the sea-like plain, which not only abuts against its steep
sides, but likewise separates the parallel ranges. The uniformity
of the colouring gives an extreme quietness to the
view, - the whitish grey of the quartz rock, and the light
brown of the withered grass of the plain, being unrelieved
by any brighter tint. From custom, one expects to see in
the neighbourhood of a lofty and bold mountain, a broken
country strewed over with huge fragments. Here nature
shows that the last movement before the bed of the sea is
changed into dry land may sometimes be one of tranquillity.
Under these circumstances I was curious to observe how
far from the parent rock any pebbles could be found. On
the shores of Bahia Blanca, and near the settlement, there
were some of quartz, which certainly must have come from
this source: the distance is forty-five miles.
The dew, which in the early part of the night wetted the
saddle-cloths under which we slept, was in the morning
frozen. The plain, though appearing horizontal, had insensibly
sloped up to a height of between 800 and 900 feet
above the sea. In the morning (9th of September) the guide
told me to ascend the nearest ridge, which he thought would
lead me to the four peaks that crown the summit. The climbing
up such rough rocks was very fatiguing; the sides
were so indented, that what was gained in one five minutes
was often lost in the next.
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