Sir F.Head, speaking of the inhabitants, says, "They eat their dinners, and it is so very hot, they go to sleep--and could they do better ?" I quite agree with Sir F.Head: the happy doom of the Mendozinos is to eat, sleep and be idle.
MARCH 29, 1835.
We set out on our return to Chile by the Uspallata pass situated north of Mendoza.

We had to cross a long and most sterile traversia of fifteen leagues.

The soil in parts was absolutely bare, in others covered by numberless dwarf cacti, armed with formidable spines, and called by the inhabitants "little lions." There were, also, a few low bushes.

Although the plain is nearly three thousand feet above the sea, the sun was very powerful; and the heat, as well as the clouds of impalpable dust, rendered the travelling extremely irksome.

Our course during the day lay nearly parallel to the Cordillera, but gradually approaching them.