The Republican journal., 1905-11-30
A NATURAL PRODUCTION OF SUI
PHUR AND MINERAL SPRINGS IN
THE HEART OF THE ANDES MORE
WONDERFUL THAN THE "NATU-
RAJ BRIDGE" IN VIRGINIA OR
THOSE IN UTAH.
Especial Correspondence of The Journal

Especial Correspondence of The Journal
/ BUENOs AYRES, ARGENTINA, Oct.
20, 1905. Warned by the exigencies of
newspaper space, we left ourselves
last week in the very heart OF the
Andes, headed for Ell Tunte del Inca.
1t is not my purpose to record the
journey step by step-and Heaven for
bid that any presumptuous pen should
! attempt to describe in detail the glories
of the Andes; but | want to tell you
about the "Puente''. or bridge, of the
Incas. Following for many miles the
path that has been cut out by the
Mendoza river through gigantic masses
of rock, winding here and there in the
most capricious fashion and though not
very steep, extremely fatiguing On ac-
count of loose stones and salt i'm
pregnated dust, our little caravan
reached the picturesque path of Las
Eacas THE Cows, Where three detiles
converge. This used to be the most
dangerous and dreaded point on the
road, on account of raging torrent to
be forded, until one of the Governors
of Mendoza built a substantial bridge
across it some years ago. The traveller
venturing to cross the Andes without a
guide would be puzzled at this place
to know which of the three defiles to
take, and his life would probably de-
pend upon the right choice, because
, there is no time to loiter between the
! ''casuchas," or places of shelter which
the government has caused to be
erected, a long days journey apart,
and to pass the night on the open
mountain would be terrible, if not
fol nno Of fhpcp
verging canons leadS-so says Don
Rafael, our Arriero-up hill and down
dale to an impossible lake of melted
snow; and the other ends at the brink
of tremendous chasm, or crack in
the mountain. He told us that once he
was obliged to follow some stray
mules up one of these byways, and was
astonished to find man sitting on a
rock, apparently enjoying the scenery.
He hallOOed, but received no answer,
and fearing that the stranger might be
freezing, he went up and tapped him on
the shoulder-when, to his horror, the
man rolled to the ground and broke in
several pieces. He had been dead more
than forty years, for a paper found in
his pocket proved that he was Spanish
soldier who had fled from the defeat at
Nayto, and was trying to get into Ar
gentina via the Andes. Probably his
wooden clothes had saved him from the
beaks and claws of the condOrs, for
those gigantic birds are few, consider
ing the vast spaces over which they
range and the plentitude of easy prey.
The trail is StreWn with the bones of
mules and oxen, some picked clean and
others still occupying the attention of
birds of prevail the victims of delay
from snow storms or other causes. The
Arriero assert that higher up, in the
region of perpetual snow, the bodies of
mules may be found that have laid
there more than century, undecayed,
but now light as cork. At one place
we passed a perfect GolgOtha of skulls
and skeletons-hundreds of them hud-
died together in narrow gorge. They
are the remains of large drove of
cattle that were being driven from Ar
gentlna to Chill several years ago, and
having been overtaken by a SnOWStOrm,
persisted of cold and starvation. OF
course there is no pasturage away up
here, and it is impossible to carry food
animals many days. Storms come
without warning and rage with terrific
violence, accompanied by intense cold
and the biting winds that nothing can
withstand. While human beings may
find refuge in the Casuchas-which the
government built expressly for the
safety of courriers carrying the mails,
where they may often have to remain
a week or more-the shelterless beasts
must freeze or starve to death. We
encountered our first Casucha in
the valley of Las Cuevas-a hut
in the shape of a bake-oven, built
six feet thick of adobe bricks and
set upon solid pedestal ten feet high.
Ascending wooden staircase, you
enter a vaulted chamber sixteen feet
high, with neither windows nor Chin
ney. On the floor in the centre may