Such a spectacle as the above needs no comment.
At four o’clock of the next morning after our departure from Mendoza, the muleteer aroused us, and bade us prepare for the journey; and an hour later we were journeying along the base of the lofty Andes, that towered above our heads.
Two hours’ ride brought us to the travesia, over which we journeyed, passing close to a great lake that is supplied by two streams that flow from the Cordillera.
Much of the water is absorbed by the soil about the lake; and as but very little escapes through one or two outlets, it has been called by the natives “El Guana Cache,” or the Consuming Lake.
I afterwards saw specimens of fishes that had been taken from its waters, which were offered for sale in San Juan by the half-starved peons during the winter season, when provisions were very dear. If the specimens did not belong to the genus Nematogenys of Girard, they were closely allied to it.
At night our party stopped beside a rude hut, inhabited by a poor gaucho. The hut contained a curious family of men, women, children, dogs, goats, and fowls. The poor owner begged for a little sugar as a remedio.
Throughout the following day our course was over the same dreary desert, and at night we were glad to arrive at a post-house within a few leagues of San Juan.
By noon of the next day our party entered the town, which is still more isolated than Mendoza, being one hundred and fifty miles north of the principal road to Chili.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] Undoubtedly the miserable food upon which the poor people subsisted helped in encouraging the growth of this excrescence.