surrounded us
as the trail wound its way along the high point on the top of the
mountain range. We went only 21 kil. that day from Pampas, having
occupied seven hours to cover the distance, owing to the difficulties of
the march.

In the afternoon we were enveloped in dense fog which lasted the whole
night, the cold being quite severe, and the more perceptible because of
the humidity in the air. The trail here described a wide detour, which
could have easily been avoided had another trail that went direct to New
Bermudez been followed at the bottom of the valley. The journey by that
lower trail could be accomplished in one day and a half. The elevation by
hypsometrical apparatus of this camp (N.71) was 5,663 ft.

On January 23rd we descended rapidly through beautiful forest from Camp
71, where we had halted for the night, to a large _tambo_ called Enenas,
in charge of an Italian. The place was situated in a beautiful valley
intersected by a streamlet saturated with lime. It looked exactly like
milk, and hurt your gums considerably when you drank it. The excellent
mule I was riding had unfortunately hurt one of its legs while we were
crossing a swollen torrent, where the mule and myself were nearly swept
away in the foaming current. Riding on the lame animal, which was all the
time stumbling and falling down on its knees, was unpleasant. In the
narrow trail it was not possible to unload another animal and change the
saddle, and it was out of the question for me to walk.

[Illustration: The Inca Temple of the Sun, with Spanish Superstructure.]

[Illustration: Inca Doorway, Cuzco.]

I arrived at the _tambo_ with a ravenous appetite, but unfortunately
nobody had telephoned from the previous _tambo_ that I was coming, so
that it was impossible to get lunch, and I had to wait two or three hours
before I could get anything to eat at all. The men in charge of the
various _tambos_ were rather negligent in telephoning and making
arrangements with the next _tambo_, as the kind of travellers they had
on that trail was not of the highest type and could not always be relied
upon for payment. The people in charge of the _tambos_ were poor devils,
half _abrutis_, to use a most appropriate French expression, by the life
they had to lead in that forlorn country.

On January 24th we continued our journey over horrible deep mud-holes,
which made the trail extremely dangerous. On that particular day we were
travelling over sticky soi