different roads. One, the steeper of the two, runs southward, across
the Piedra Parada; the other, on which the ascent is somewhat easier,
takes an easterly direction, over Antarangra. We will first trace the
latter course, which is the most frequented. At the extremity of the
valley, and twenty-eight leagues from the capital, is situated the
last village, Cashapalca, 13,236 feet above the sea. Its inhabitants
are chiefly employed in mining. Formerly, vast quantities of silver
were obtained here. But most of the mines are now either under water
or exhausted, and the village, with its mine works, has dwindled into
insignificance. Beyond Cashapalca there is a tract of marshy ground,
which being passed, a narrow winding road of about two leagues leads
up the acclivity. The soil is clayey, and thinly bestrewed with alpine
grass, intermingled with syngenesious and cruciferous plants. Two
plants which are called by the natives _mala yerba_ and _garban
zillos_, and are a deadly poison to mules and horses, grow in great
abundance here. The numerous skeletons of beasts of burthen seen along
the road bear evidence of the fatal effects of those plants. Higher up
the ascent the vegetation becomes more and more scanty, until at
length it entirely disappears, and nothing is visible but the barren
rock of the Sierra highlands.

The last division of acclivity is called by the natives the Antarangra
(copper rock). On it there is a small heap of stones, which I shall
describe by and by, and a cross made of the stems of the _Baccharis_.
From this point the traveller catches a distant glimpse of the
heaven-towering summit of the Cordillera.

I speedily mounted the ascent, and reached the goal of my journey.
Here I found myself disappointed in the expectation I had formed of
commanding an uninterrupted view over boundless space and distance.
The prospect is greatly circumscribed by numerous rocky elevations,
which spring up in every direction. The mountain passes running across
the ridge of the Cordillera are bounded on all sides by rocks,
sometimes not very high, but at other times rising to the elevation of
1000 feet. The pass of Antarangra (also called Portachuelo del Tingo,
or Pachachaca) is 15,600 above the sea.[63] Nevertheless it is, during
a great part of the year, free from snow. Scarcely a quarter of a
league further northward are the eternal glaciers, and they are
several hundred feet lower than the Pass. That the Pass itself