As it was early in the afternoon when we arrived, we took fresh
horses and a soldier for a guide, and started for the Sierra de la
Ventana. This mountain is visible from the anchorage at Bahia
Blanca; and Captain Fitz Roy calculates its height to be 3340
feet--an altitude very remarkable on this eastern side of the
continent. I am not aware that any foreigner, previous to my visit,
had ascended this mountain; and indeed very few of the soldiers at
Bahia Blanca knew anything about it. Hence we heard of beds of
coal, of gold and silver, of caves, and of forests, all of which
inflamed my curiosity, only to disappoint it. The distance from the
posta was about six leagues, over a level plain of the same
character as before. The ride was, however, interesting, as the
mountain began to show its true form. When we reached the foot of
the main ridge, we had much difficulty in finding any water, and we
thought we should have been obliged to have passed the night
without any. At last we discovered some by looking close to the
mountain, for at the distance even of a few hundred yards, the
streamlets were buried and entirely lost in the friable calcareous
stone and loose detritus. I do not think Nature ever made a more
solitary, desolate pile of rock;--it well deserves its name of
Hurtado, or separated. The mountain is steep, extremely rugged, and
broken, and so entirely destitute of trees, and even bushes, that
we actually could not make a skewer to stretch out our meat over
the fire of thistle-stalks. (6/1. I call these thistle-stalks for
the want of a more correct name. I believe it is a species of
Eryngium.) The strange aspect of this mountain is contrasted by the
sea-like plain, which not only abuts against its steep sides, but
likewise separates the parallel ranges. The uniformity of the
colouring gives an extreme quietness to the view;--the whitish grey
of the quartz rock, and the light brown of the withered grass of
the plain, being unrelieved by any brighter tint. From custom one
expects to see in the neighbourhood of a lofty and bold mountain a
broken country strewed over with huge fragments. Here Nature shows
that the last movement before the bed of the sea is changed into
dry land may sometimes be one of tranquillity. Under these
circumstances I was curious to observe how far from the parent rock
any pebbles could be found. On the shores of Bahia Blanca, and near
the settlement, there were some of quartz, which certainly