seemed to
move slowly and lazily, as though they, too, had been under the
influence of some soporific. But the pure cold air of the mountain soon
produced its effect. All gradually recovered, and after cooking some
_charqui_ and ocas in the ravine, and making their breakfast upon these,
they again felt light and fresh, and pursued their journey with renewed
vigour.

The road kept on up the ravine, and in some places the banks rose almost
perpendicularly from the bed of the dry torrent, presenting on both
sides vast walls of black porphyry--for this is the principal rock
composing the giant chain of the Andes. Above their heads screamed
small parrots of rich plumage of the species _Conurus rupicola_, which
make their nestling places, and dwell upon these rocky cliffs. This is
a singular fact, as all other parrots known are dwellers among trees and
are found in the forest at all times, except when on their passage from
place to place. But even the squirrel, which is an animal peculiarly
delighting in tree-life, has its representative in several species of
ground-squirrels, that never ascend a tree; and, among the monkeys,
there exists the troglodyte or cave-dwelling chimpanzee. No doubt
squirrels or monkeys of any kind, transported to an open or treeless
country, would soon habituate themselves to their new situation,--for
Nature affords many illustrations of this power of adaptation on the
part of her creatures.

It was near sunset when our travellers reached the highest point of
their route, nearly 14,000 feet above the level of the sea! Here they
emerged upon an open plain which stretched far before them. Above this
plain towered mountains of all shapes to a height of many thousand feet
from the level of the plain itself. Some of these mountains carried
their covering of eternal snow, which, as the evening sun glanced upon
it, exhibited the most beautiful tints of rose, and purple, and gold.
The plain looked bleak and barren, and the cold which our travellers now
felt added to the desolateness of the scene. No trees were in sight.
Dry yellow grass covered the ground, and the rocks stood out naked and
shaggy. They had reached one of those elevated tables of the Andes
known as the _Puna_.

These singular tracts elevated above the level of cultivation are almost
uninhabited. Their only inhabitants are a few poor Indians, who are
employed by the rich proprietors of the lower valleys as shepherds; for
upon