Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1912-02-29
CROSSING THE
ANDES MOUNTAINS
Followed Caesars Direction
AS To The Barren
Roads.
GREAT EAGLES SCARED
In One Valley The Spider
Bites Sometimes Pro-
duced Death.
GREAT EAGLES SCARED


first portion Of n letter written by
Mrs. Maude Newell Williams, former
ly of BarabOo and whose parents, Mr..
and Mrs. w. II. Newell, reside here.
Mr.. and Mrs. Williams and son have
moved from B)Zota to Bucarama nga
where they begin new work as mis-
sionaries. The letter continues as
follows:
By the time We were ready to start
it was after twelve and the heat was
intense. We wound out from the town
and found in front of us the hardest
piece of road that we had vet
seen. l cannot adequately describe
this marvellous strip of road, altho any
OF you would be interested in viewing
it, if you did not have to ascend it..
The road was cut out off white cliff
as white as school chalk, and about as
crumb'y. 1t wound around and around.
after the fashion of spiral stairs, thus
shutting Us in between two high
straight walls, where not a breath of
air entered, and the SUMS rays, almost
directly over our heads, poured down
with a mighty strength of heat. The
poor horses, all of them from cool
country, suffered greatly, and we be-
gan to fear, would not be able to 90 on.
But it was of little avail to stop, for
there was no shade anywhere, and no
water. We had neglected to fill our
water bottles at the inn (the only time
that we forgot it on the whole trip)
and Newell began to ask for water.
There was nothing to be done but
Graz" on up the stairs. 1t took us near
ly three hours to make the three tn ou-
sand feet ascent in that oven! And
then we found ourselves on wide
desolate perfectly dry tabIe-land. Urg-
ing the horses on, we found, about
four, O'Clock a hut where they said there
was wat-r for Newell. 1t was with
difficulty that we prevailed upon them
TO let us pay for the glass of water,
al tho no one knew with how much
difficulty they may have brought the
water they used. Certainly there was
no spring anywhere in sight.
Enormous Snakes in Huge Rocks
The heat and the thirst made the
pace of the horses very slow, so we
spent most of the remaining hours OF
the afternoon in making swift, steep
descents into the next valley. A little
boy of some 10 or IL years, who lived
somewhere in this sterile region, had
walked over the mountain and down
the burning white spiral stairs to ask
aims for his mother who was i'll.
He followed us for some miles, and we
talked with him to find out all we
could about the country and the peo-
pie. He had much to tell about the
enormous snakes which lived in these
huge rocks and deep dens. They were
from 10 TO Il meters long ( 80 to 81
feet) and both struck and bit. They
came out by day on the rocks "tC
warm themselves" and by night ste
find food" He said that no one could
be induced to travel on the mountain
by night, for their lives and those OF
their beasts were in great danger.
These stories were confirmed for us
later and many interesting ones added
Naturally we kept our eyes wide open,
trying to catch glimpse of one
"Warming himself" But the only
snake we saw was tiny thing about
as long as ones arm. 1t looked like q
harmless, ordinary green snake, but is
said to be very poisonous. 1t was
sticking out its tongue at us,
close at our elbow, when we caught
sight of it. 1t was the only snake we
saw on the whole journey although
we passed through several regions
where they are supposed to be plenti-
full.
At the foot of this mountain we
found a cool, grateful stream and a
well-cultivated valley around it. We
went down the last cliff into a large
banana plantation and proposed Sc
curing some fruit, since we had not
before seen any for week. After ex-
planning at length what [ ewanted-a
banana that one conld eat raw without
cooking-they still stared at me as
though talked a strange language II
was using my best Spanish) and re-
piled, "You must be mistaken. Ba-
nanas are never eaten raw. They are
always cooked. If you. will come in
and sit down a half hour we will fry
you some in lard.
Lunched by The Hillside.
We hurried on to the village, two