The feeling, however, is not of an individual nature;
for I believe I am right in saying that any animal with a bell will
serve as a madrina. In a troop each animal carries on a level road,
a cargo weighing 416 pounds (more than 29 stone), but in a
mountainous country 100 pounds less; yet with what delicate slim
limbs, without any proportional bulk of muscle, these animals
support so great a burden! The mule always appears to me a most
surprising animal. That a hybrid should possess more reason,
memory, obstinacy, social affection, powers of muscular endurance,
and length of life, than either of its parents, seems to indicate
that art has here outdone nature. Of our ten animals, six were
intended for riding, and four for carrying cargoes, each taking
turn about. We carried a good deal of food in case we should be
snowed up, as the season was rather late for passing the Portillo.
MARCH 19, 1835.
We rode during this day to the last, and therefore most elevated,
house in the valley. The number of inhabitants became scanty; but
wherever water could be brought on the land, it was very fertile.
All the main valleys in the Cordillera are characterised by having,
on both sides, a fringe or terrace of shingle and sand, rudely
stratified, and generally of considerable thickness.
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