est of pure atmospheres,
among those grand old mountains. For a long time I could not go to
sleep: at last I did, and it seemed but a moment afterwards that Terry
aroused me to go with Tom and the Indian guide to bring the guanaco and
the skin of the puma. With their aid we were not long in finding the
puma, and in having his skin off him. We found the first guanaco
untouched, so we took his skin and some of the flesh. As, however, we
were looking for the spot where we had left the other, a huge condor
rose into the air, followed by two or three others.

"Ah! you'll not find much beyond his bones, depend on that," said Tom.
"These birds don't leave pickings for anybody else."

Such being the case, we agreed that it was not worth while to climb up
so far, as we were in a hurry to get back to the rock to breakfast.
Directly after it we set off on our return to the city. The natives of
Chili, we were told, often catch the puma with the lasso. They also
hunt it with dogs, and shoot it when it climbs up trees. When we came
to the bridge of hide-rope it looked more rickety and impassable than
ever. Just fancy a few rotten-looking strips of leather slung across a
chasm some thousand feet deep!

"Never mind," said Fleming, laughing; "hold on to something. If it give
way don't you let go, at all events, and the chances are you are brought
up somewhere. My maxim is, Never let go of one rope till you have got
hold of another."

However, we crossed in safety, and spent a very pleasant day at
Santiago, seeing all the sights of that city, though Jerry and I agreed
that we would rather have been in the mountains shooting guanacoes or
hunting pumas,--so I daresay would old Surley. We got back in good time
to Valparaiso. When dining at the hotel, we met an Englishman who had
travelled over all parts of South America, and had made an infinite
number of sketches, which he did in the most rapid way. He made me a
present of several, which he drew at the hotel; among them was the
Frontispiece to this volume. He gave us the following information at
the same time. He told us that apes' flesh was very nice for eating--a
fact some of our party were inclined to doubt. He laughed at our
scruples, and assured us that he had frequently dined off apes. The
Indians on the Amazon go out regularly to hunt them, and have a very
successful mode of so doing. Every hunter is provided with a hollow
cane, called a sarbacan--I before desc