[60] Thuja gigantea.
[61] Many cattle are exported from Argentine to Chile, but these can here, as in the passes of southern Chile, be driven over the top of the ridge, though many now go by rail.
[62] An account of the ascent and of all this region will be found in Mr. E. A. Fitzgerald's High Andes, the author of which was prevented by illness from reaching the summit.
[63] This name is in the Andes usually applied to the sharp little peaks of ice that stand up, like the pyramidal points of seracs, on the surface of Andean glaciers, and it suits them better, because penitents wear white garments. The similarity of form has however caused it to be applied to these black towers also.
[64] It was first ascended by Mr. Vines in 1897. The measurements of Aconcagua vary from 23,200 to 22,425 feet. Mercedario is given at 22,300 and Tupungato at 22,015.
[65] The finest representation I have ever seen is a twelfth-century mosaic figure of Christ in the apse of the Norman cathedral at Cefalu in Sicily.
[66] The distant view of Badrináth and Trisul from the heights above Naini Tal in Kumaon is also quite as imposing as anything we saw in the Andes.
[67] Whether the discovery of India was his original aim, a point recently brought into question, there is no doubt that he thought after his first voyage that he had found some part of eastern Asia.
[68] Unless Magellan had got farther to the west than the rest of the narrative would imply, three days seems a short time for the boats to proceed to the western opening and back again.
[69] Cape Horn was discovered in 1616 by Van Schouten and Le Maire sailing from the East.