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All at once Juan lifted his head, listened for a moment, and then said, with more show of animation than he had yet displayed and with positiveness in his voice: "Vacas!" Curly straightened up in his saddle as though electrified. "Vacas? Onde, Juan? where's any cows?" He knew well enough that no hoof of domestic cattle had ever trod this country.
In this line of section, the interval between the Puente del Inca and the neighbourhood of the Cumbre, includes all the chief axes of dislocation. The altered clay-slate formation, already described, is seen in several parts of the valley as far down as Las Vacas, underlying the porphyritic conglomerate.
From the Rio de las Vacas to the Puente del Incas, half a day's journey. As there was pasture for the mules, and geology for me, we bivouacked here for the night. When one hears of a natural Bridge, one pictures to oneself some deep and narrow ravine, across which a bold mass of rock has fallen; or a great arch hollowed out like the vault of a cavern.
On the evening of the succeeding day we reached the Rio de las Vacas, which is considered the worst stream in the Cordillera to cross. As all these rivers have a rapid and short course, and are formed by the melting of the snow, the hour of the day makes a considerable difference in their volume.
Lower down the valley, at the R. de las Vacas, I had a better opportunity of examining it; it is there in some parts well characterised, having a distinct, nearly vertical, tortuous cleavage, ranging N.W. and S.E., and intersected by quartz veins: in most parts, however, it is crystalline and feldspathic, and passes into a true greenstone often including grains of quartz.
This strikes me as a good illustration of how little we are able to judge from the ordinary habits of life, on what circumstances, occurring only at long intervals, the rarity or extinction of a species may be determined. Passing the valley of Las Vacas, we slept at a house of a North American, who worked a lime-kiln on the Arroyo de las Vivoras.
Yet trust as he did the dictum of the giant's strange extra sense, he could not see, anywhere upon the wide country round about them, any signs of the buffalo to which he was sure the Mexican meant to call his attention. "Vacas! muchas," repeated Juan carelessly. "Lots of 'em, eh? Well, I'd like to know where they are, my lily of the valley," said Curly, for once almost incredulous.
On the evening of the succeeding day, we reached the Rio de las Vacas, which is considered the worst stream in the Cordillera to cross. As all these rivers have a rapid and short course, and are formed by the melting of the snow, the hour of the day makes a considerable difference in their volume.
This strikes me as a good illustration of how little we are able to judge from the ordinary habits of life, on what circumstances, occurring only at long intervals, the rarity or extinction of a species may be determined. November 19th. Passing the valley of Las Vacas, we slept at a house of a North American, who worked a lime- kiln on the Arroyo de las Vivoras.
For two nights he watched the distended sun, exhausted by its own madness, drop back into the heated void, and the tortured stars rise over the stricken desert. At the end of thirty-six hours of agony he arrived at Rio Mendoza. Thence he reached Punta de Vacas, procured mules and a guide, and prepared for the ascent over the mountains.
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