The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1903-09-17

man guests But in every instance
the mules get the best Of it. OF course
the traveller has brought his own mat
tress and blanket and store of pro-
visions and some sort of amateur cook
ing contrivance by which he can at
least make cup of tea. But you can
easily imagine that after Il long days
ride in the mountains the average ex-
plorer does not feel in the mood for
cooking, his strongest impulse being to
tumble mattress down anywhere roll
himself up in blanket and make men
tai calculation OF his blisters and
bruises, while the tambo keepers pro-
coed to prepare for him whatever they
please.
The greatest artist that ever lived
could not convey with brush and colors
an adequate idea of the awe-inspiring
grandeur of the Andes; and certainly
no pen pictures can do them falntest
justice Moses may have beheld SINH
lar sights on cloud wrapped Sinai,
when the glory of heaven was upon it,
as he listened to the voice of the LORD.
AS our journey led near to the Bolivian
head waters of the Amazon we crossed
the last interior spur of the Andean
system. Not many of the Anglo
Saxon race have ever penetrated these
innermost recesseS of the mountains;
and of that number few were women.
This seventh range shows for three
hundred miles. a succession of sharp,
snoW-capped peaks, each presenting to
the westward a sheer cliff, many thou
sands of feet high, which looks like
gigantic sugar-loaf split in the middle,
the fallen half piled below in a chaos
of sIate-like debris. Seen from a dis
lance, their bare and totally inaccessi-
bic sides look black as ink, in contrast
with the interminable snoW-tields
above. which the foot of man or beast
has never trodden. Occasionally con-
dor is Seen--the poets proud bird OF
the Andes, slowly clrcling to his
home above the clouds. For most of
the way the road winds round and
round the mountain side at an enor-
NOUS height, up and down. and sharply
curving, and sometimes is a regular
series of stairs, cut into solid rock.
One of these stair-like passages is sew
eral miles long, with abrupt turns and
zigZags, up and down which our beasts
picked their way with utmost care.
In this sort of travelling the great
point is to gain perfect confidence III
your animal. and be sure that the saddle
girths are kept as tight as he can bear :;
then to fix your eyes on the heavenly
views, regardless of sublunary things.
Not an easy thing at all times to keep
your head in the clouds while maintain
ing a firm seat on the back OF mule
which insists on walking on the very
edge of the trail, its every step dis
lodging earth and stones that roll down
such an Unreasonable distance that the
thud of striking bottom is not heard.
Perhaps the greatest danger is that OF
meeting a party coming from the OPP
posite direction.
Every few miles wider place has
been followed out, and all travellers are
expected to pause here and blow horns
to signal their presence to those who
| NAV be coming. Worst of all, cattle
are sometimes driven over-wild bulls
! for the plazas de torros, and the fore
most bull is likely to dispute the pas
| sage with any conner Such waterfalls
and cascades as come tumbling down
from unknown heights to the valley,
! far far below, some of them rlvallng IN
magnificence our own Niagara, or any
thing the Yosemite can show; while the
/ river which fills the centre OF the mar
row. winding valley, SO far below our
! aerial track that it looks ike tlllv
thread of silver, is in reality raging
cataract. dashing over giant boulders
| with noise like thunder for more
| than fifty miles outdoing the rapids
| above Niagara.
There are mountains on every hand;
mountains everywhere, stretching
away to the horizon; while the nearest
range on the opposite side of the valley,
narallel to this we are slowly travers-
ing, appears almost near enough 10
| toss a stone from one to the other.
When the lowlands are reached
comes the new experience OF fording
the many small rivers that flow into
the larger one; but we found it prefer
able to most of the bridges along the
route-frail structures swung from
tree to tree, and swaying like cradles
heneath us. At one point the road lies