CHAPTER XIV.

PROVINCES OF CUYO.

The town of Cuyo formerly attached to Cordova. Value of the old municipal institutions. SAN LUIS, wretched state of the population. The miserable weakness of the Government, exposes the whole southern frontier of the Republic to the Indians. Aconcagua seen from the town. Mines of Carolina. Account of a journey over the Pampas in a carriage. MENDOZA, extent, rivers, artificial irrigation, productions. Mines not worth working by English companies. Ancient Peruvian road. City of Mendoza, and salubrity of the Climate. SAN JUAN. The productions similar to those of Mendoza, Wine, Brandy, and Corn. Quantity of Corn produced yearly. Mines of Jachal. Character of the people. Passes across the Andes. Dr. Gillies' account of an excursion by those of the Planchon and Las Damas. Singular animal found in the provinces of Cuyo named the Chlamyphorus, described by Mr. Yarrell.

The towns of San Luis, San Juan, and Mendoza, with their several jurisdictions, each of which is now considered a separate province, in the time of the Viceroys were subject to the Intendency of Cordova. In 1813, by a decree of the National Congress, they were separated from that government, and formed into a distinct province, under the denomination of the Province of Cuyo,[68] of which Mendoza was made the capital; but in this, as in the other divisions of the republic enacted about the same time, the bonds were too loosely knit to resist the shocks of party struggles and domestic convulsions; and this arrangement, though wisely planned, fell with the dissolution of the Congress at Buenos Ayres which created it.

But for the cabildos and municipal institutions which still existed in most of the principal towns of the interior when the metropolitan government was dissolved, in 1820, I believe every semblance of a legitimate authority would have ceased. They retained to a certain extent powers not only for the preservation of the public peace, but for the administration of justice; and although perhaps, under the circumstances, they afforded facilities for the establishment of the federal system in opposition to a more centralised form of government, there is no doubt they saved the insulated towns in the interior from worse consequences. Those institutions were by far the best part of the colonial system planted by the mother country, and they were framed upon principles of liberality and independence which formed a very singular exception to her general colonial policy. I doubt whether those which in most cases have been substituted for them have been so wisely cast, or are so suitable to the state of society in those countries. The people at large were habituated and attached to them, and had they been retained, with some reforms adapting them to the new order of things, they might have been made the very best foundations for the new republican institutions of the country. But the truth was, they were essentially too democratic for the military power which arose out of the change; they succumbed to that, and the people, having no real voice in their new governments, made no struggle to preserve them.

SAN LUIS.

Of all the petty governments of the interior that of San Luis is one of the most wretched. The population, estimated at from 20,000 to 25,000 souls, is thinly scattered over the estancias, or cattle-farms, at very long distances from each other, where they lead a life so far removed from anything like civilised society, that it may be doubted if their condition is really much better than that of the wild Indians, of whom they live in such continual dread, and against whose fearful inroads their miserable provincial authorities can afford them no efficient protection. Their independence and weakness is a serious evil to the whole republic, which is in consequence of it left defenceless on its most assailable side. The provinces of Cordova, Santa Fé, and Buenos Ayres, are obliged to maintain each a separate militia to protect their frontiers thus left open to the savages; and the most important of all the communications in the republic, the road from Buenos Ayres to Mendoza, is constantly unsafe from the total absence of all means on the part of the government of San Luis to make it otherwise. Every year this state of things goes on the evil consequences become more manifest; and, unless the ridiculous independence of some of these insulated townships be put an end to by their re-annexation to their old provincial capitals, not only must their own interests be annihilated, but those of the republic at large must materially suffer. It is idle to look for any improvement under the present system, which can only lead to the diffusion of ignorance and moral degradation, if the wretched population does not altogether disappear under it.

The straggling mud-built town of San Luis de la Punta, which gives its name to the province, contains about 1500 inhabitants, all miserably poor. Bauza places it in lat. 33° 17´ 30", long. 65° 46´ 30". It is prettily situated on the western slope of one of a group of hills, which appear to be the last knolls of the Sierra da Cordova. Dr. Gillies gives it 2417 feet above the level of the sea, by barometrical observation, a greater elevation than the traveller from the pampas perhaps would imagine. There is, however, a splendid prospect from it; the great saline lake of Bevedero glistening at a distance, and the interminable plains stretching away to the south, covered with a rich vegetation, brilliant with gaudy flowers, amongst which the bulbous plants are strikingly conspicuous.[69]

Towards sunset, the Cordillera, capped with snow, is often visible, though above 200 miles distant. It has been generally supposed to be Tupungato which is thus seen; but Tupungato does not rise above the limit of perpetual snow,[70] and is often entirely free from it; is it not more likely therefore to be Aconcagua, which Captain Fitzroy found to attain the enormous elevation of 23,200 feet, upwards of 2000 higher than the famous Chimborazo? The direct distance differs very slightly of either from San Luis, Tupungato is 213, and Aconcagua 216 geographical miles from it; the latter being about 50 miles to the north of the other.

The gold-mines of San Carolina are about sixty miles to the north of San Luis, in the mountains; they have long since been filled with water, and, as there are no capitalists or machinery to drain them, they are no longer worked, but the people of the hamlet wash and sift the alluvial soil collected at particular places (the lavaderos) in the neighbourhood, and so collect every year a quantity of gold in dust and small bean-like lumps, which they call _pepitas_. According to the official returns in the King of Spain's time, the produce of one year, on which duty was paid, was about 150 lbs. At present the people take little trouble to collect more than is absolutely necessary to enable them to purchase at San Luis the few articles of clothing and horse-gear which they require; if anything, they are even worse off than the gauchos upon the estancias. Captain Head paid them a flying visit, and has described the wretched poverty in which he found them.

Originally, and before the erection of Buenos Ayres into a Vice-Royalty, the province of Cuyo was subject to the government of Chile, of which San Luis was at that time the frontier-town to the eastward, and the place where the Captains-General in consequence first received the honours due to them when they crossed the pampas from Buenos Ayres to take possession of their government. It takes its name from Don Luis de Loyola, a Governor of Chile, who founded it in the year 1596.

By the post-road it is 226 leagues distant from Buenos Ayres, and 84 from Mendoza; and it is the only place that exceeds the description of a straggling village throughout the whole distance. The road which runs through it has been often described by those who have crossed the pampas in the last twenty years, and they have left little to say about it. By all accounts it seems to be a most uninteresting one; and the grand object, therefore, is to get over it with the greatest possible expedition. The more common mode of performing the journey is on horseback; but this is necessarily attended with great fatigue, and he must have an iron constitution who attempts it; but if he can live upon meat yet warm with life, or barely toasted over a gaucho fire, dispense with bread, drink brackish water, and sleep as a luxury upon the ground in the open air, in spite of bugs as big as beetles, which will suck him like vampires, his saddle for a pillow, and the sky for his covering, and with such fare gallop a hundred miles a day, he may, barring accidents, reach Mendoza in about ten days. He will find no temptation to loiter on the way, though much to make him wish to reach his journey's end.

There are post-houses, or stations, along the whole line of road, where relays of horses may be had; wretched animals in general, to all appearance, though the work they will sometimes do is almost incredible, and that of course entirely upon green food; it is true their gaucho riders never spare them, and their tremendous spurs, reeking with blood when they dismount, but too cruelly indicate in general the goad which has urged them on. Unlike the Arab or the Cossack, the gaucho seems to have no kind feeling whatever for his horse; the intrinsic value of the animal being of no importance, if he drops on the way his rider cares not, he lassoes and mounts another beast, and abandons the exhausted one to the condors and vultures, always on the look-out for such a chance, and which will tear the flesh from the poor brute's bones as soon as they find he has not strength enough left to shake or kick them off. The mares lead a better life, being kept entirely for breeding; and custom is so strong that no consideration would induce a gaucho to mount one. The pampa Indians have the same feeling, but they keep them for food as well as breeding; mare's flesh by them is preferred to all other, indeed it is their ordinary food.

But it is not absolutely necessary to go through the fatigue of riding on horseback across the pampas, and, for those disposed to consult their ease, an admirable sort of carriage may be had at Buenos Ayres, called a galera, in appearance more resembling a London omnibus than any other carriage I ever saw; it is swung upon hide ropes, and is of light though very strong construction; and in this the journey as far as Mendoza may be performed in fourteen or fifteen days without difficulty. At the same time that Captain Head started to ride on horseback across the pampas, another friend of mine, with four or five persons in his suite, who was desirous to combine as much comfort as possible with such an undertaking, left Buenos Ayres in the sort of carriage I have described; he had besides with him a cart on two wheels, for the conveyance of baggage, bedding, cooking utensils, &c., and much such a supply of _stock_ as people would lay in for a voyage by sea of two or three weeks' duration. On reaching Mendoza, he sent me an account of his journey, from which I extract the following, for the benefit of those disposed to follow his example:--

_"Mendoza, December, 1825._

"We reached this place on the morning of the eighteenth day from our leaving Buenos Ayres. H--d, who started on horseback at the same time, did it in nine, but with so much fatigue as to be obliged to lie up for some days afterwards to recruit. We might easily have done it in our carriage in fourteen or fifteen, for we galloped nearly the whole way, as he did, but for the tiresome stoppages we were continually obliged to make in order to repair our cart; these kept us half a day at one place, one day at another, and two whole ones at San Luis. Though you laughed, as well you might, at our set-out, and at the appearance of our galera and caratillo, stuffed with my manifold preparations for personal comfort, I can truly say, now the expedition is over, that of all carriage contrivances the galera is infinitely the best calculated for an excursion across the pampas; ours was remarkably easy over the roughest roads, capable of resisting all injury from them, and its high wheels well adapted for preventing our sinking in the quagmires, whilst it formed a comfortable bedroom at night. Of the caratillo I cannot speak favourably:--from its construction it was not suited to keep pace with the galera; two galeras would be better, especially if there were ladies of the party, in which case one might be fitted especially for their convenience, with couches for sleeping, &c. The pies and provisions might be stowed away in lockers, as the sailors would call them, made for the purpose; and the more good things in the shape of eatables and drinkables you can get into them the better, unless you have the stomach of an ostrich to digest what the gauchos offer you. The filth of the post-houses is beyond description, dirt and vermin of every kind in them, and no accommodation of any sort for the traveller; even our peons preferred sleeping in the open air, and you would not suspect them of being over nice; I never in my life saw such a set of wild devils.

"The country is more uninteresting than any I ever travelled over, in any quarter of the globe. I should divide it into five regions:--first, that of thistles, inhabited by owls and biscachas; secondly, that of grass, where you meet with deer and ostriches, and the screaming horned plover; thirdly, the region of swamps and bogs, only fit for frogs; fourthly, that of stones and ravines, where I expected every moment to be upset; and, lastly, that of ashes and thorny shrubs, the refuge of the tarantula and binchuco, or giant bug.

Its geological aspect differed somewhat from what I expected. I should say that, to the north and south of Mendoza, there have been volcanoes, the eruptions from which have covered the country (perhaps the bed of a sea) with ashes as far as San Luis: the peculiar soil so formed, combined with the effects of climate and the salt lakes, may perhaps account for the particular species of thorny plants which are undescribed and confined to this region. The mountain streams, overflowing the saline lakes, are the origin of the vast swamps between San Luis and the Rio Quarto; and the decomposed granite and gneiss from the Sierra de Cordova, gives rise to the difference in the soil, and to its elevation along the Rio Tercero."

MENDOZA.

The province of Mendoza occupies a space of something more than 150 miles from north to south, along the eastern side of the Cordillera of the Andes, and nearly an equal distance from east to west, measured from the Desaguadero to the central ridge of the Andes. The northern boundary is formed by a line passing east and west through the post station of Chañar, about eighteen miles north of the city, which divides it from the jurisdiction of San Juan. To the south the nominal frontier line is the river Diamante, although lands beyond that river have been purchased from the Indians, which are likely, perhaps, to become some of the most valuable of the province, especially for the purposes of cattle breeding, for which those in the vicinity of Mendoza are not suitable.

The river Desaguadero is the divisional line between the provinces of San Luis and Mendoza:--this river is the drain of a singular chain of lakes known by the name of Guanacache, formed by the confluence of the river Mendoza, which runs into them from the south, and the San Juan river, which, after passing the town or city so called, is discharged into them from the north. The Desaguadero, after receiving these rivers, runs first in an easterly direction, and afterwards south, into a vast lake called the Bevedero, below the town of San Luis:--a portion, also, of the waters of the river Tunuyan are lost in the same great sack-like lake, which thus becomes the reservoir of the greater part of the streams which issue from the Andes between the thirty-first and the thirty-fourth degree of latitude. It is said that in old times the Tunuyan also, like the rivers of Mendoza and San Juan, had no other outlet, but that river, at a later period, opened for itself a new channel, and though a portion of its waters are still carried into the Bevedero, the greater part of them turn off to the south before reaching it in a stream called the Rio Nuevo by Bauza, and the Desaguadero by Cruz,[71] which runs in that direction a considerable distance, till the Diamante and Chadi-leubú rivers join it, and together they form another great inland water without any outlet, called the Urré-lauquen, or Bitter Lake, from its extreme saltness, as described in chapter eight. The account of this lake given to Cruz by the Indians who accompanied him in his journey across that part of the Pampas in 1806, has been verified of late years by General Aldao, who personally examined it in an expedition which he commanded against the savages in 1833, when he rode round it, and ascertained that it had no outlet.

The river Tunuyan rises from the base of the mighty mountain of Tupungato, and at first runs south through a wide and rich valley in the Cordillera; passing eastward of the volcano of Maypú, or Peuquenes, it afterwards finds its way through the eastern chain of the Andes by a deep chasm or opening, which it seems to have burst for itself through the mountains seven or eight miles below the Portillo Pass, and nearly opposite to where the Maypú leaves the Cordillera on the western side: thence its course through the plains is north, and afterwards eastward, in the direction of the great lake Bevedero, as already stated.

It would seem as though Nature herself had expressly directed the course of these rivers, viz., the Mendoza, Desaguadero, and Tunuyan, in such a way as to facilitate to the inhabitants the means of artificially irrigating their lands, which, from the quality of the soil, and the rarity of rain, would be otherwise barren and unproductive[72]:--as it is, the quantity of lands artificially watered by ducts from the rivers Mendoza and Tunuyan is estimated at about 30,000 square leagues, and these lands, which are arid and barren when not so watered, become, under regular irrigation, uncommonly rich and fertile, yielding frequently, under a very rude and simple mode of agriculture, more than a hundred-fold. Wheat, barley, and maiz are thus grown; besides which there are extensive vineyards and orchards, and grounds covered with lucern grass for the fattening of cattle,--all regularly enclosed, and walled in with thick mud walls, called _tapiales_.

The products of the province are wine, brandy, raisins, figs, wheat, flour, hides, tallow, and soap, which last is made from a species of barilla, which abounds in most parts of it:--a considerable portion of these is exported to Chile and to the provinces of Cordova, San Luis, and Buenos Ayres. The quantities so disposed of will be best understood by the following official return of the exports for a single year:--

Account of Exports of Produce of Mendoza for other parts during the year 1827.

+------------+------------+------------+------+-------+------+------+-------+ | | | |Corn | [73] | | | | | | | |and | Dried |Hides.|Soap. |Tallow.| | Where sent.| Brandy. | Wine. |Flour.|Fruits.| | | | | +-----+------+-----+------+------+-------+------+------+-------+ | |Pipes.Loads.|Pipes.Loads.|Loads.|Loads. | No. |Loads.|Loads. | +------------+-----+------+-----+------+------+-------+------+------+-------| |Buenos Ayres| 336 | 2144 | 290| 3120 | 1098 | 520 | 670 | -- | -- | |San Luis | -- | 70 | -- | 488 | 1634 | 85 | -- | 60 | -- | |Cordova | -- | 95 | -- | 355 | 125 | 49 | -- | -- | -- | |Santa Fé | -- | 81 | -- | 172 | 469 | 39 | -- | -- | -- | |Chile | -- | 12 | -- | -- | -- | -- | 8700 | 571 | 88 | +------------+-----+------+-----+------+------+-------+------+------+-------+ | | 336 | 2402 | 290| 4135 | 4452 | 693 | 9370 | 631 | 88 | +------------+-----+------+-----+------+------+-------+------+------+-------+

In addition to these native products, the mineral riches of the province are various and valuable. The silver mines of Uspallata have at times been very productive, and in other parts of the same range veins, both of silver and copper, are known to exist, though want of capital and labourers has hitherto prevented their being opened. With respect to the working of these mines by English companies, and in the English manner, the best opinions seem to agree that it would not answer to make the attempt.

Mr. Miers carefully examined the mines at Uspallata, and has given a particular account of the mode in which they are worked by the natives, and of the process resorted to for separating the silver from the ore. At the time he visited them they were not yielding more than two marks per caxon:[74] a very low average, upon which he has taken the trouble to make calculations to show that the English mode of smelting can never be brought into competition with the process of amalgamation as practised in South America. He says,--"To ensure economical results the aid alone of the people of the country, as well as the application of their peculiar habits and management, must be resorted to: wherever English improvements are attempted to supersede the old methods, such trials would be attended with loss. "No one," he adds, "can doubt but that in the barbarous mode of operation followed in Chile great loss of product is occasioned; but when this loss is placed in competition with the increased cost of labour, materials, and management necessary to ensure a greater amount of produce, the inference is irresistible that it is better to put up with this loss than to expend a sum of money far beyond the value of what can be obtained by adopting the improved methods used in countries where facilities abound which can hardly be procured at any price in Chile and La Plata."

Captain Head, after seeing them, came to a similar conclusion: he considered that, although they might yield a liberal return under the more economical plan of employing native labourers properly directed, and at the ordinary low rate of wages paid for such labour in that part of the country; from the want of water, wood for fuel, and pasturage for cattle throughout the region in which they are situated, they would not repay the cost of working them by machinery, or by an English establishment.

In all this part of the Cordillera is to be found an abundance of limestone, gypsum, alum, mineral pitch, bituminous shales with appearances of coal in many places, slates, and a variety of saline deposits, amongst others common and Glauber salts.

The same metalliferous chain of the Andes extends, according to Gillies, with little interruption, from Chile to Peru, and contains the greater part of the gold and silver mines yet known on the eastern ranges of the great Cordillera, including, besides those of Uspallata, the mines of the province of San Juan, and further north those of Famatina in La Rioja. It is separated from the central ridge of the Andes by an extensive valley, or succession of valleys, running northwards from Uspallata, through which it is said that an ancient road of the Peruvians is to be traced at the present day nearly to Potosi; a point well worth the attention of the antiquarian, and of great interest, as connected with the state of civilization which the aborigines had attained before their conquest by the Spaniards.

The population of the province of Mendoza is calculated to be from 35,000 to 40,000 souls, about a third of which is resident in the city and its immediate vicinity. The executive power is vested in a Governor, periodically chosen, as in the other provinces, by the Junta, or Provincial Assembly.

A visible improvement has taken place in the condition of this people in the last twenty years; for, although at so vast a distance from the Capital, like Salta, its position as a frontier town has given it some special advantages: it has led to communications with foreigners, and to a traffic with Chile and with Buenos Ayres, which, by teaching them the value of their own resources, has roused a sort of commercial spirit amongst the inhabitants, and has stimulated them to more industrious habits. The government has taken pains to establish schools for the education, of all classes, and the setting up of a printing press, from which has issued an occasional newspaper, has been of great use, not only in opening the eyes of the people at large to the proceedings of their own rulers, but in furnishing them with some notion as to what is going on from time to time in other parts of the world.

They are, in general, a healthy and well-conditioned race: descended many of them from families originally sent from the Azores by the Portuguese government to colonise Colonia del Sacramento on the river Plate, and made prisoners and settled in those remote parts by Cevallos, during the war which preceded the peace of 1777. It is probably much owing to them that the cultivation of the vine has been so extensively introduced in this part of the Republic.

The city of Mendoza, which, according to Bauza, is in south latitude 32° 52´, west longitude 69° 6´; at an elevation of 4891 feet above the sea, and at the very foot of the Andes, is shut out from any view of the great Cordillera by a dusky range of lower hills which intervene. Its appearance is neat and cheerful: the houses, for the most part, built of sunburnt bricks, plastered and whitewashed; and the streets laid out at right angles, as usual in that part of the world. It boasts of an Alameda, or public walk, said to equal anything of the kind laid out, as yet, in South America:--it is nearly a mile long, neatly kept, and shaded by rows of magnificent poplars:--there are seats and pavilions at either end for the accommodation of the inhabitants, by whom it is much frequented as a lounge, especially of an evening.

The climate is delightful and salubrious, and is remarkably beneficial to persons suffering from pulmonary affections. The only ailment to which the people seem more liable here than in the interior is the goitre, which I suppose may be attributed to the same causes, whatever they are, which seem to produce it in almost all alpine districts.

SAN JUAN.

The province of San Juan, which adjoins that of Mendoza, occupies the space between the great Cordillera and the mountains of Cordova, as far north as the Llaños, or plains, of La Rioja. It is said to contain about 25,000 inhabitants, governed, at present, like those of Mendoza, and occupied very much in the same manner, in the cultivation of their vineyards and gardens, and in agricultural pursuits. Their exports of brandies and wines to the other provinces are little short of those from Mendoza, and the quantity of corn they annually grow has been estimated at from 100,000 to 120,000 English bushels. The same lands produce yearly crops under the process of artificial irrigation from waters highly charged with alluvial matter. The ordinary crops are 50 for 1, in better lands 80 to 100, and in some, as at Augaco, about five leagues to the north of the city of San Juan, they have been known to yield 200 and 240. The price in the province is from one and a half to two Spanish dollars for a fanega, equal there to about two and a half English bushels. The wages of a day labourer are from five to six dollars a month, besides his food, which may be worth a rial a day more.

In times of scarcity corn has been sent from San Juan to Buenos Ayres, a distance of upwards of a thousand miles; but this can never answer under ordinary circumstances, from the great expense attending the land carriage. It is different with the wines and brandies, which, after all charges, can be sold in most of the provinces of the interior, and even at Buenos Ayres, at a fair profit. They are in general demand amongst the lower orders, and, if pains were taken with them, might be very much improved. I have had samples of as many as eight or ten different qualities, all of them good, sound, strong-bodied wines, and only requiring more care in their preparation for market.

In the northern part of this province, in the lower ranges of the Cordillera, is the district of Jachal, in which are what are called the Gold Mines:--they are, as far as I could learn, much in the same state as those of La Carolina in the province of San Luis, already spoken of. Their yearly produce was estimated, in 1825, at 80,000 dollars, the greater part of which was sent to Chile to be coined at the mint of Santiago. The accuracy of this calculation has been disputed, but, men if true to its fullest extent, the amount is of no great consequence.

The situation of the city of San Juan is in latitude 31° 4´, according to Molina. Mr. Arrowsmith has placed it in longitude 68° 57´ 30".

The climate is described as truly heavenly, and the people as a well-disposed race, extremely anxious to improve both their moral and political condition. In this they have had chiefly to struggle with the countervailing influence of an ignorant, vicious, and bigoted priesthood, which has been greatly opposed to all innovations:--the political power, however, of this class of persons is fast on the wane at San Juan, as in most other parts of the Republic.

PASSES OF THE ANDES.

I shall conclude this chapter with a list of the passes across the Andes from the several provinces of this republic of which I have any account: they are twelve in number:--

First.--The most northerly is a continuation of the road called the Despoblado, which crosses the mountainous districts of the north-western part of the province of Salta by the mines of Yngaguasi to Atacama.

Second.--A pass from the province of La Rioja communicates with Guasco and Copiapo in Chile.[75]

Third.--Another, further south, leads from the province of San Juan to Coquimbo.

Fourth.--That called Los Patos on the north flank of the great mountain of Aconcagua, descending into Chile by the valley of the Putaendo, a small river which joins the larger one of Aconcagua in the plains below, near the town of San Felipe. It was by this road that General San Martin made his celebrated march over the Andes with the army of Buenos Ayres in 1817, which led to the liberation of Chile from the Spanish yoke.

Fifth.--The pass of the Cumbre by Uspallata, the road most usually taken by travellers proceeding from Mendoza to Santiago de Chile, and which has been very particularly described by several Englishmen, who have gone that way. Of the published accounts that of Mr. Miers is, perhaps, the best, as he had the most opportunities of making it so, having crossed it no less than four times, once with his wife, who was taken in labour upon the road. Lieutenant Brand's is particularly interesting, from his having crossed at the season when the Cordillera was covered with snow, which obliged him to proceed on foot a great part of the way, and to encounter fearful risks, which he has very graphically described. The whole distance from Mendoza to Santiago is 107 post leagues; and the highest part of the Andes crossed is (by barometrical measurement), according to Dr. Gillies, 12,530 feet above the sea:--Mr. Miers says about 600 feet less. From the commencement of November to the end of May, occasionally a few weeks sooner or later, this road is passable the whole distance on mules:--for the rest of the year it is generally closed to all but foot-passengers, and the crossing is then attended with considerable danger; many lives have been lost in attempting it.

A striking object on this road is the splendid arch called the Inca's Bridge, seventy-five feet over, which nature has thrown across a ravine one hundred and fifty feet deep, through which runs the river of Las Cuevas. There are natural hot springs about it, which some persons suppose to have contributed to its formation:--it is evident, however, that some infinitely more powerful agency has been at work, from the appearance of beds of fossil shells there at an elevation of 8650 feet above the level of the present sea.

Sixth.--About half way over, near the station called the Punta de las Vacas, a road branches off to the valley of Tupungato, and afterwards crosses the Cordillera to the north of the peak so called, descending on the opposite side into Chile by the valley of the little river Dehesa, from which it is called the Dehesa Pass: it is very little used.

Seventh.--South of the mountain of Tupungato is the Portillo Pass, which falls into the valley of the river Maypú in Chile with the Rio del Yeso. By many travellers it is preferred to the high road by Uspallata, being the shorter way of the two by twenty leagues:--it is, however, seldom open longer than from the beginning of January to the end of April, the greater elevation of that part of the Cordillera causing it to be longer blocked up by the snow.

The way to it from Mendoza runs southward, parallel to the mountains as far as the estancia of Totoral, upon the north bank of the river Tunuyan, distant about sixty-five miles from that city, and some twenty from the base of the Cordillera:--thence the pass bears west-south-west, distant about thirty-six miles; the breach in the mountains through which the Tunuyan runs being plainly visible to the south of it. This part of the Andes seems to consist of two great parallel ridges running nearly north and south, and separated from each other by the valley of the Tunuyan, the width of which is about twenty miles, and its elevation above the sea, where crossed by the road, about 7500 feet. Of the two ranges the eastern one is the highest, being, where the road crosses it, 14,365 feet above the sea:--this chain extends with little interruption from the river of Mendoza, southwards, to the Diamante, a distance of about 140 miles:--the western, or Chilian range, where crossed by the road, is not above 13,200 feet high.[76]

In this part of the Cordillera is situated the volcano of Peuquenes, or Maypú, eruptions from which have been frequent since the great earthquake which produced such disturbance in 1822:--they generally consist of ashes and clouds of pumice-dust, which are carried by the winds occasionally as far as Mendoza, a distance little short of 100 miles. In crossing from the eastern to the western side of the valley of the Tunuyan travellers have, at first, the summit of the volcano concealed from them, but about half way between that river and the pass of Peuquenes there is a good view of it eight or nine miles distant to the south:--the summit is generally covered with snow, and cannot be much less than 15,000 feet above the sea. It is from the pumice-rock found in this neighbourhood that the people of Mendoza make basins for filtering the muddy water of their river.

Eighth.--To the south of this volcano is situated a pass called De la Cruz de Piedra, which enters the Cordillera where a small stream, the Aguanda, issues from it, about two leagues to the north of the fort of San Juan:--it unites with the road by the Portillo pass on the opposite side of the Andes in the valley of the Maypú.

Ninth.--Further south one little frequented unites the valleys of the rivers Diamante and Cachapoal: this is previous to reaching the volcano of Peteroa, beyond which are situated the passes of Las Damas and of the Planchon.

Tenth.--Of these the Las Damas, or ladies' pass, enters the Cordillera from Manantial in the valley of the river Atuel, and descends by that of the Tinguiririca, which issues from the mountain of San Fernando:--this was the pass which M. de Souillac, in 1805, reported might, at a very small expense, be rendered passable for wheel-carriages.[77]

Eleventh.--The road by the Planchon leads to Curico and Talca, following the courses of the rivers Claro and Teno:--on neither of these roads does the elevation exceed 11,000 feet, or the vegetation ever cease.

The twelfth pass is that of Antuco, from which Cruz started in 1806 to cross the Pampas to Buenos Ayres:--the road by it to Conception in Chile follows the valleys of the rivers Laxa and Biobio. To the south of the volcano in the vicinity of this pass, which Cruz could not get up, but which has since been ascended by M. Pæppig, a German naturalist (who nearly lost his life in the attempt), lies a ridge called the _Silla Velluda_, rising, according to his estimation, to the height of 17,000 feet, on the rugged sides of which, below the snow and glaciers, are to be traced ranges of basaltic columns.

Of the most frequented of these passes, viz., those by Uspallata and the Portillo, there are, as I have already said, several accounts in print, but, as I know of no other Englishman except the late Dr. Gillies who has examined those of Las Damas and the Planchon with any attention, I shall here quote part of a letter which he wrote to me in 1827, giving an account of a short excursion he made by them in that year; and I do so the rather because it also gives some account of the intervening country, which has never, as far as I know, been described by any one else:--

"About the middle of May I returned from an excursion of ten weeks to the south which I had long meditated. After reaching the river Diamante, the southern boundary of the province of Mendoza, I crossed that river and ascended the Cerro del Diamante, and at every step found ample evidence of its volcanic origin: the ascent was covered with masses of lava, and near the summit with loose pumice. The upper part of the mountain consists of a ridge elevated a little at each of the extremities into a rounded form, on the north side of which, a little below the summit, is a plateau about 400 yards in diameter, which undoubtedly has been formerly the crater of a volcano. The whole mountain appears to rest on an immense bed of pumice-stone. On the steep banks of the Diamante opposite to it such strata are laid open on both sides:--at one place on the south bank I traced one great mass of pumice-rock, 100 feet long and 145 wide, the whole forming distinct basaltic pillars.

"From this interesting spot we proceeded towards the mountains of the Andes, and amongst the first low hills examined several springs of petroleum, about which it is curious to observe the remains of a variety of insects, birds, and animals, which, having got entangled there, have been unable to extricate themselves:--so tenacious is this substance that (as I was assured by an eye-witness) some years ago a lion was found in the same situation, which had made fruitless attempts to escape. Following the base of this lower range southward, after a few leagues we reached the banks of the river Atuel, a copious stream much larger than either the river of Mendoza or the Tunuyan:--its bed, very unlike that of the Diamante, is very little lower than the surrounding plains, which gradually slope off to the eastward for twelve or fourteen leagues, as I had an opportunity afterwards of observing.

"The north bank, where we crossed it, seems admirably adapted for an agricultural settlement: it is there that the several roads diverge across the Cordillera to San Fernando, Curico, and Talca, in Chile; and to the south into the country of the Indians. We proceeded from thence towards the Planchon, along a succession of valleys rich in pasturage, but very bare of shrubbery: in several places we saw immense masses of gypsum, and passed a mountain from which is obtained an aluminous earth, much used in Chile as a pigment for dyeing. The pass of the Planchon is along the north shoulder of a lofty mountain, apparently composed of sonorous slaty strata. My barometer unfortunately got out of order before I reached the highest elevation; but, as vegetation extends to the top of the pass, it must be considerably lower than the passes of the Portillo and of Uspallata, on both of which all vegetation ceases long before reaching the higher points of the road. The descent from the Planchon is very rough, and in many places steep: at a distance of three leagues from the top we reached our resting-place, surrounded by luxuriant vegetation, and thence descended to Curico, along a valley with steep mountains on either side, and through a continuous thicket of lofty trees and shrubs, amongst which I may enumerate the Chilian cypress, the quillay, the canelo or cinnamon-tree, the caustic laurel, a variety of myrtles, a beautiful fascia, and others no less interesting.

"From Curico we went to Talca, a considerable town, and thence explored the river Maule, with a view to its capabilities for navigation. We returned by Curico to San Fernando, where we re-entered the Cordillera by the valley of the Tinguiririca to ascend the pass of Las Damas: the road was very similar to that we had previously descended from the Planchon to Curico; but, being much less frequented, it was in many places difficult and dangerous. In the upper part of this valley we examined some hot springs, the temperature of which reached 170° of Fahrenheit. Thence we were induced to devote two days to visit a volcano,--which was described to us as being in an active state,--about ten leagues distant: thither we proceeded by a most rugged and dangerous path, and reached within half a league of the summit, when so serious a snow-storm came on, that we had the mortification of being forced to return without accomplishing our object; nor had we any time to lose, for the snow had so completely obliterated all traces of the way, that our guide was completely lost, and, but for the observations I had taken with my compass, I know not how we should have got back at all. On reaching our mules again, the weather was so unpromising that we made all haste to recross the mountains, lest they should be closed against us by the heavy snow which was falling; this we happily accomplished, and three days brought us back again to the place where we had first crossed the Atuel river. After visiting the extensive saline lakes in that vicinity, from which the province is supplied with salt, we bent our way back to Mendoza.

"In this journey I had an opportunity I had long desired of examining on the Cordillera the plant from the root of which the natives of Chile obtain their admirable red dye."

Dr. Gillies, the writer of this letter, passed many years at Mendoza, where he recovered from a severe pulmonary affection, and was himself a striking instance of the beneficial effects of the climate under such circumstances. Botany was his favourite pursuit; but he did not confine himself to this, and never lost an opportunity of collecting useful information on every other point which fell under his notice.

His botanical acquisitions were, I believe, chiefly communicated to Professor Hooker, of Glasgow, through whom they were occasionally made known to the public. His collections of the ores of Uspallata and other parts of the Cordillera were given to the College Museum at Edinburgh. I am myself indebted to him for the best part of my information respecting the provinces of Cuyo. It was through him I obtained, amongst other curiosities from those parts, the very remarkable little animal which is figured in the annexed plate, and which is now in the collection of the Zoological Society of London. It has hitherto been only found in the provinces of Cuyo, and even there but rarely: it burrows in the ground, and in its habits somewhat resembles the mole, lying dormant during the winter months; the natives call it the Pichi-ciego. Dr. Harlan, of New York, was the first to give an account of it, from an imperfect specimen sent to him from Mendoza; and he gave it the name of _chlamyphorus truncatus_.

European naturalists, however, doubted its existence till the point was settled beyond dispute by the arrival of my specimen, which fortunately was perfect, and in an excellent state of preservation. At the request of the council of the Zoological Society, Mr. Yarrell drew up a particular account of its osteology, which was published in the third volume of their Journal, and from which, with his permission, I extract the following observations upon its comparative anatomy.

"From the representation of the skeleton and its different parts it will be perceived that the _chlamyphorus truncatus_ has points of resemblance to several other quadrupeds, but that it possesses also upon each comparison many others in which it is totally different.

"It resembles the beaver (_castor fiber_) in the form and substance of some of the bones of the limbs, in the flattened and dilated extremity of the tail, and the elongation of the transverse processes of the lower caudal vertebræ, but no further.

"It has much less resemblance to the mole (_talpa Europea_) than its external form and subterranean habits would induce us to expect. In the shortness and great strength of the legs, and in the articulation of the claws to the first phalanges of the toes, it is similar; but in the form of the bones of the anterior extremity, as well as in the compressed claws, it is perfectly different; nor do the articulations of the bones, nor the arrangement of the muscles, allow any of the lateral motion so conspicuous in the mole; the hinder extremities of the chlamyphorus are also much more powerful. It resembles the sloth (_bradypus tridactylus_) in the form of the teeth and in the acute descending process of the zygoma; but here all comparison with the sloth ceases.

"The skeleton of the chlamyphorus will be found to resemble that of the armadillo (_dasypi species plures_) more than any other known quadruped. In the peculiar ossification of the cervical vertebræ, in possessing the sesamoid bones of the feet, in the general form of all the bones, except those of the pelvis, as well as in the nature of the external covering, they are decidedly similar; they differ, however, in the form and appendages of the head, in the composition and arrangement of the coat of mail, and particularly in the posterior truncated extremity and tail.

"There is a resemblance to be perceived in the form of some of the bones of the chlamyphorus to those of the _orycteropus capensis_ and _myrmecophaga jubata_, as might be expected in animals belonging to the same order. To the _echidna_ and _ornithorhynchus_ it is also similar in the form of the first bone of the sternum, and in the bony articulations, as well as the dilated connecting plates, of the true and false ribs. It becomes interesting to be able to establish even small points of similarity between the most extraordinary quadrupeds of New Holland and those of South America; that continent producing in the various species of _didelphis_ other resemblances to the _marsupiata_. In the form of the lower jaw, and in other points equally obvious, the chlamyphorus exhibits characters to be found in some species of _ruminantia_ and _pachydermata_.

"In conclusion I may remark that in the composition and arrangement of its external covering, and in its very singular truncated extremity, the chlamyphorus is peculiar and unique; and if a conjecture might be hazarded, in the absence of any positive knowledge of the habits of the animal, it is probable that it occasionally assumes an upright position, for which the fattened posterior seems admirably adapted. It is also unique in the form and various appendages of the head, and most particularly in possessing an open pelvis, no instance of which, as far as I am acquainted, has ever as yet occurred in any species of mammalia."

Since Mr. Yarrell's observations Dr. Buckland, in his description of the _megatherium_, has further pointed out the resemblances of the chlamyphorus to that fossil monster.

FOOTNOTES:

[68] The word _Cuyo_, according to Angelis, in the Araucanian language signifies _arena_, or sand, which is the general character of the soil.

[69] The cactus, which is found in every variety throughout the province of Cuyo, abounds in the neighbourhood of San Luis, and the natives collect the cochineal from it, and make it into cakes, which they use in dying their ponchos.

[70] Although from June to December it is either wholly or partially covered with snow, I have seen it in the month of May wholly bare, when only a few days before there had been heavy falls of snow on the Cumbre, or central ridge, &c. I mention these facts to show that Tupungato cannot attain a higher level than that assigned to the limit of perpetual congelation, which in this latitude to about 15,000 feet, though, from the known height of the Cumbre, and its supposed elevation above the central ridge, I am disposed to conclude that its actual elevation cannot be far short of 16,000 feet (Miers).

[71] Dr. Gillies says where the Diamante joins it, it is called the Salado.

[72] In the more southern parts of the province, in the direction of the Diamante, corn may be grown without the labour and expense of artificial irrigation, the rains which fall there being sufficient to render it unnecessary.

[73] The dried fruits of figs, peaches, apples, nuts, olives, &c.

Between 300 and 400 mules were sold for Chile in the same year. The load or carga is equal to about 200 lbs.

[74] The mark is eight Spanish ounces, or seven ounces, three pennyweights, fourteen grains, troy, English. The caxon is fifty quintals, or 5000 lbs. of ore.

[75] According to Myen, a recent traveller, this part of the Cordillera is not so elevated as more to the south:--he says it is passable at several points of the province of Copiapo.

[76] These heights are given on the authority of Dr. Gillies.

[77] Zamudio, an officer in the service of Buenos Ayres, who examined it the year before M. de Souillac, is said to have actually passed it with a two-wheel cart. Dr. Gillies does not give so favourable an account of its present state.