More interesting is the quiet little town of San Rafael to the south. It is the capital of a department of that name and is connected by rail with Mendoza. In the early days of Rosas it was an important frontier post. Population, owing to Indian wars and the undeveloped nature of the country, increased but slowly, the figures for the whole department being 1,000 in 1857 and 2,000 in 1883. San Rafael is now a flourishing little town, and its prosperity is assisted by industrious French settlers. The French language is to be heard almost as often as Spanish in its streets.
When the traveller has exhausted the attractions of Mendoza and the neighbourhood he will probably wish to pursue his way along the Transandine Railway into Chile. As the start is made very early in the morning his first near view of the Andes will be made under favourable circumstances, for the rising sun will flush them with a glorious crimson.
"Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye."
But the general scenery of the Mendoza Andes is most disappointing. In autumn, at least, even the mighty Aconcagua shows very little snow, and in general the mountains are perfectly bare with the straightest of contours. Their size is their only attraction. In the Province of Mendoza alone the following huge mountains are to be found:—
| Aconcagua | 22,450 feet |
| Tupungato | 22,140 " |
| San Jose | 20,130 " |
| Iglesia | 18,000 " |
| Cruz de Piedra | 17,230 " |
| San Francisco | 17,100 " |
Nothing can be more desolate than the appearance of these unlovely monsters. In some places there is enough coarse herbage to afford scanty grazing for ponies, but there is literally nothing else, not a tree, not a blade of real grass, and all forage and supplies of every kind have to be brought up by rail. The valley up which the railway goes is redeemed to some extent by the river Mendoza, which rushes down crystal or foaming, but those who are accustomed to the green forests and boundless snows and rugged precipices of old-world mountains, will say, "The old is better."
At Mendoza it was necessary to change carriages and enter the narrow-gauge train. The locomotive is a modest affair compared with the great trains which climb to much greater heights in the Peruvian Andes, but the gradients are very steep and sometimes the rack and pinion have to be used. After a run of eight or ten hours the famous Puente del Inca is reached.
THE HOTEL, PUENTE DEL INCA.