dy, we sat down to
the finest of corn-cakes, beans, eggs, and tender kidmeat. We spread our
blankets under a little shelter which stood in front of one side of the
house. None of us slept well. It was very cold; dogs barked all night
long; now and then a sudden outbreak of their barking, and curious
signals and whistles, which were repeated in various parts of the
mountain, gave us some uneasiness. At three o'clock in the morning, just
as we were napping, Don Anselmo startled us by the statement that our
mule was dead. In a moment, all was excitement. Mariano examined the
animal and reiterated the statement. As for us, we were in the mood to
care but little whether the mule was living or dead. Half frozen and
very weary, our frame of mind was not a cheerful one. Just before
daybreak we could stand the cold no longer, and gathering some dry wood,
we started a fire and crowded around it. The report about the mule
proved to be false, and when morning came, there was no sign that
anything was the matter with him.

It was nine o'clock before we started on our journey in the morning. We
had three long hours of clambering up and down heavy slopes, and, much
of the way, through a stream the bed of which was filled with slippery
boulders and pebbles, over which the horses slipped and stumbled
frightfully. Our horses slid down small cascades, but, when we came to
larger ones, we had to mount the banks by ugly bits of road, descending
below the falls. After much labor and weariness, we reached El Parian at
noon. Having rested through the hotter portion of the day, we took the
road again at two. We followed up the brook-bed to the point where
another stream entered it, at an acute angle. Up this stream we turned,
and after following it a little, struck suddenly up a steep hill, and
then climbed on and on over a good road, cut in the limestone rock, up
and up, until we reached the very summit. The vegetation here was a
curious assemblage,--palms, cedars, oaks, and a mimosa-like tree, formed
the chief types. The limestone rock upon the summit was curiously
eroded, as if by rain rills. The masses presented all the appearance
and detail of erosion shown by the great mountain mass of the country
itself; looking at one of these little models, only a few feet across,
and then gazing out upon the great tangle of mountain peaks around us,
one could almost imagine that the one was the intentional reproduction
of the other, in miniature. For