In the evening we sailed a few miles farther up, and then pitched
the tents for the night. By the middle of the next day the yawl was
aground, and from the shoalness of the water could not proceed any
higher. The water being found partly fresh, Mr. Chaffers took the
dingey and went up two or three miles farther, where she also
grounded, but in a fresh-water river. The water was muddy, and
though the stream was most insignificant in size, it would be
difficult to account for its origin, except from the melting snow
on the Cordillera. At the spot where we bivouacked, we were
surrounded by bold cliffs and steep pinnacles of porphyry. I do not
think I ever saw a spot which appeared more secluded from the rest
of the world than this rocky crevice in the wide plain.
The second day after our return to the anchorage, a party of
officers and myself went to ransack an old Indian grave, which I
had found on the summit of a neighbouring hill. Two immense stones,
each probably weighing at least a couple of tons, had been placed
in front of a ledge of rock about six feet high. At the bottom of
the grave on the hard rock there was a layer of earth about a foot
deep, which must have been brought up from the plain below.
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