ANTEDILUVIAN REMAINS. 397 "In central Asia, the bones of horses and deer have been found at an elevation of 16,000 feet above the sea, in the Himalaya mountains. The occurrence of these bones at such enormous elevation, and consequently in a spot unfrequented by such animals as the horse and deer, can, I think, be explained only by supposing them to be of antediluvian origin, and that the carcases of the animals were drifted to their present place, and lodged in sand by the diluvial waters. This appears to me the most probable solution that can be suggested; and, should it prove the true one, will add a still more decisive fact to that of the bones of diluvial animals found by Humboldt on the elevated plains of South America, to show that all the high hills and the mountains under the whole heavens were covered,' at the time when the last great physical change, by an inundation of water, took place, over the surface of the whole earth.”* * Buckland, Reliquiæ Diluvianæ, p. 223. 398 DEPARTURE FROM TARIJA. CHAPTER XIII. Departure from Tarija.-Serious catastrophe.-Guide loses his way in a snow-storm. Bivouac on the desert of Yavi. Good effect of example when in difficulty. Strange term of insult to a horse.-Heartfelt farewell to an old and trusty friend.-Condor. JUNE 26th. The disturbed state of the provinces through which my road lies to Buenos Ayres, has, notwithstanding the agreeableness of my abode, involuntarily detained me at Tarija until this day, when, in opposition to the considerate advice of my friends, I put my long-threatened resolve into execution, and continued my journey, after giving and receiving many cordial embraces, the impressions of which can never be effaced from my heart. The kindness of my worthy friend, Colonel O'Conor, continued to the last, for he furnished me with peones, mules, and horses, from his own esta STACKS OF MAIZE. 399 blishment, and escorted me himself the first stage to a village, where I took up my quarters for the night, under a shed in front of the miller's house. The prodigious quantity of Indian corn that was heaped, like bean-stacks, round the village, all the produce of a very few acres of cultivation, was a striking feature, and proved the fertility of the soil. 27th. Pleasant weather; I travelled ten leagues through an uninhabited country, and then stopped at the house of a major-domo of a large estate, belonging to the Prefect of Tarija, who had given me a letter, desiring that I might be well received, but no stimulus was requisite to induce him to provide me with every thing that the country afforded; mutton, poultry, eggs, chicha, milk, and aguardiente, were all produced in abundance. 28th. A cloudy November-like day; travelled through a rocky ravine, and, for the sake of good pasture for the animals, stopped for the night under the lee of some old walls, which afforded very comfortable shelter from a high wind that blew from snow-covered mountains, towering, not " Alps on Alps," but Cordillera on Cordillera, around us. 29th. What a journey of weariness and woe! 400 A CATASTROPHE. Cruel was the sight to see us toiling up full fifteen miles of a continued steep to the summit of the Cordillera, that here forms a ridge round the south-western extremity of the province of Tarija; but crueller by far to behold the wretched, wretched mule that slipped on the edge of a precipice, and-away! exhibiting ten thousand summersets, round, round, round! down, down, down! nine hundred and ninetynine thousand fathoms deep-certainly not one yard less, according to the scale by which I measured the chasm in my wonder-struck imagination, while I stood in my stirrups, straining forward over the ears of my horse, (which equally trembled with alarm,) and viewing the microscopic diminution of the mule, as it revolved with accelerated motion to the bottom, carrying with it our whole grand store of provision. If I say that ten minutes passed away in silent consternation, without an eye being turned from the luckless object of our dismay, I am sure I do not exaggerate above one half. Alas!" said I, in that plaintive tone of despair which may well be imagined of any one who finds himself suddenly deprived of all his means of subsistence: "Alas! what is to be done?"-" Quien sabe!" said the guide--"No hai remedio," (There's no help for it,) said 66 APPROACHING STORM. 401 the peones. Still, I thought we might descend and at least recover our provisions, but, nothing is more easy than to do mischief, nothing more difficult than to calculate consequences.' Fortunately, my dog Carlo, accustomed to follow and drive in the straggling mules, pursued the present involuntary straggler down the steep, and that too, rather more hastily than he intended; but the extreme difficulty he experienced in rejoining us clearly demonstrated that, had any of us gone into the abyss, the chances were we should never have again got out. As to the poor animal that lay extended motionless at the bottom, my only hope now was, that life had fled, and that it would be saved from farther suffering in being torn to pieces by the condors, which in a few minutes after our departure was sure to happen. A lowering sky, approaching storm, and intense cold, hurried us away from the scene of disaster, when, soon clearing the pass of the Cordillera, we descended into a plain, the bounds of which the eye could not reach-a perfect desert, without semblance of tree, or bush, or shrub, of any kind. After travelling about two leagues over its trackless surface in the teeth of a snow-storm, the guide said he had lost his way; the sun had just set: we had no |