vegetation, subsist in considerable numbers in very desert places. In
Patagonia, even on the borders of the salinas, where a drop of fresh
water can never be found, excepting dew, these little animals swarm.
Next to lizards, mice appear to be able to support existence on the
smallest and driest portions of the earth--even on islets in the midst
of great oceans.
The scene on all sides showed desolation, brightened and made palpable
by a clear, unclouded sky. For a time such scenery is sublime, but
this feeling cannot last, and then it becomes uninteresting. We
bivouacked at the foot of the "primera linea," or the first line of the
partition of waters. The streams, however, on the east side do not flow
to the Atlantic, but into an elevated district, in the middle of which
there is a large saline, or salt lake; thus forming a little Caspian
Sea at the height, perhaps, of ten thousand feet. Where we slept,
there were some considerable patches of snow, but they do not remain
throughout the year. The winds in these lofty regions obey very
regular laws. Every day a fresh breeze blows up the valley, and at
night, an hour or two after sunset, the air from the cold regions above
descends as through a funnel. This night it blew a gale of wind, and
the temperature must have been considerably below the freezing-point,
for water in a vessel soon became a block of ice. No clothes seemed to
pose any obstacle to the air; I suffered very much from the cold, so
that I could not sleep, and in the morning rose with my body quite dull
and benumbed.
In the Cordillera further southward, people lose their lives from
snow-storms; here, it sometimes happens from another cause. My guide,
when a boy of fourteen years old, was passing the Cordillera with a
party in the month of May; and while in the central parts, a furious
gale of wind arose, so that the men could hardly cling on their mules,
and stones were flying along the ground. The day was cloudless, and
not a speck of snow fell, but the temperature was low. It is probable
that the thermometer could not have stood very many degrees below the
freezing-point, but the effect on their bodies, ill protected by
clothing, must have been in proportion to the rapidity of the current
of cold air. The gale lasted for more than a day; the men began to
lose their strength, and the mules would not move onwards. My guide's
brother tried to return, but he perished, and his body was found two
years afterwards. Lying by the side of his mule near the road, with the
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