This we found to be the case with the Rio Vacas, and in
the morning we crossed it with little difficulty.
The scenery thus far was very uninteresting, compared with that of
the Portillo pass. Little can be seen beyond the bare walls of the
one grand, flat-bottomed valley, which the road follows up to the
highest crest. The valley and the huge rocky mountains are
extremely barren: during the two previous nights the poor mules had
absolutely nothing to eat, for excepting a few low resinous bushes,
scarcely a plant can be seen. In the course of this day we crossed
some of the worst passes in the Cordillera, but their danger has
been much exaggerated. I was told that if I attempted to pass on
foot, my head would turn giddy, and that there was no room to
dismount; but I did not see a place where any one might not have
walked over backwards, or got off his mule on either side. One of
the bad passes, called las Animas (the Souls), I had crossed, and
did not find out till a day afterwards that it was one of the awful
dangers. No doubt there are many parts in which, if the mule should
stumble, the rider would be hurled down a great precipice; but of
this there is little chance.
Pages:
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657