ibed space where the two streams came close
together. Our muleteers were already busy in unloading the baggage,
preparatory to its being carried across the bridge on the cicatrized
backs of the occupants of the huts.

To the left of the huts, swinging high in a graceful curve, between the
precipices on either side, looking wonderfully frail and gossamer-like,
was the famed bridge of the Apurimac. A steep, narrow path, following
for some distance a natural shelf, formed by the stratification of the
rock, and for the rest of the way hewn in its face, led up, for a
hundred feet, to a little platform, also cut in the rock, where were
fastened the cables supporting the bridge. On the opposite bank was
another and rather larger platform, partly roofed by the rock, where was
the windlass for making the cables taut, and where, perched like goats
on some mountain-shelf, lived the custodians of the bridge. The path
could barely be discovered turning sharp around a rocky projection to
the left of this perch, then reappearing high above it, and then, after
many a zigzag, losing itself in the dark mouth of a tunnel.

My companions and myself lost no time in extracting the measuring tapes
and sounding lines from our _alforjas_, and hurriedly scrambled up the
rocky pathway to the bridge. It was in bad condition. The cables had
slacked so that the centre of the bridge hung from twelve to fifteen
feet lower than its ends, and, then, the cables had not stretched
evenly, so that one side was considerably lower than the other. The
cables on either hand, intended to answer the double purpose of stays
and parapets, had not sunk with the bridge, and were so high up that
they could not be reached without difficulty; and many of the lines
dropping from them to the floor, originally placed widely apart, had
been broken, so that practically they were useful neither for security
nor for inspiring confidence.

Travelling in the Andes soon cures one of any nervousness about heights
and depths, and is a specific against dizziness. Nevertheless, we all
gave a rather apprehensive glance at the frail structure before us,
but we had no difficulty in crossing and recrossing--as we did several
times--except on approaching the ends, to which our weight transferred
the sag of the cables and made the last few yards rather steep. A stiff
breeze swept up the canyon of the river, and caused a vibration of the
bridge from side to side of at least six feet. The