ns of landmarks known only to
himself, but, on the whole, steadily ascending and steadily forcing his
way ever deeper into the heart of the stupendous mountain labyrinth that
lay to the eastward. And ever as they went the air grew keener and more
biting, the aspect of the country wilder and more desolate, the
_quebradas_ more appalling in their fathomless depth. The precipices
became more lofty and difficult to scale, the mountain torrents more
impetuous and dangerous to cross, the primitive suspension bridges more
dilapidated and precarious, the patches of timber and vegetation more
tenuous, the flocks of huanaco and vicuna larger and more frequent, the
way more savage and forbidding, the storms more frequent and terrible,
until at length it began to appear to Escombe as though the party had
become entangled in a wilderness from which escape in any direction was
impossible, and wherein they must all quickly perish in consequence of
the unendurable rigours of the climate. Yet Tiahuana still pushed
indomitably forward, overcoming obstacle after obstacle that, to anyone
less experienced than himself in the peculiarities of the country and
the mode of travel in it, must have seemed unconquerable. For ten more
days--which to the Indians must have seemed endless by reason of the
awful toil, the frightful suffering, and the intense misery that were
concentrated in them, although, thanks to the sublime self sacrifice of
his escort, Escombe was permitted to feel very little of them--the
priest led the way over vast glaciers, across unfathomable crevasses,
and up apparently unscalable heights, battling all the time with
whirling snow storms that darkened the air, blinded the eyes, and
obliterated every landmark, and buffeted by furious winds that came
roaring and shrieking along the mountain side and momentarily threatened
to snatch the party from their precarious hold and hurl them to
destruction on the great gaunt rocks far below, while the cold was at
times so terrible that to continue to live in it seemed impossible.

About the middle of the afternoon of the twelfth day after leaving the
survey camp, the party topped a ridge and saw before them a long, steep,
smooth slope of snow, frozen hard by a night of almost deadly frost; and
a sigh of intense relief and thankfulness broke from the breasts of the
utterly exhausted Indians. Without wasting a moment, they proceeded to
open and unpack a certain bale which formed part o