CHAPTER XII

A TRIP TO CHILE

HE day that Vines made the ascent was very cold.

TH

cold. I sat in the sun, near our camp, watching their movements. After passing Güssfeldt's last cairn they disappeared behind the northern arête of the mountain, and not until after midday did I catch sight of them again, when I saw them skirting along to the westward by the base of the final peak. I watched them with the telescope as they slowly and painfully made their way over the rough and broken ground. They seemed excessively fatigued, for I noticed that they went with great effort, and paused every few moments, leaning on their ice-axes, and at times they would slip and fall. They kept steadily on, however, and at last reached the couloir that leads to the saddle. They seemed an interminable time here, and I was even beginning to fear that they would break down, when finally they quickened their pace and I saw them stand on the saddle. They then walked up towards the summit, and disappeared from view. A few hours later I saw them coming down. By this time the sun had set, and the night was intensely cold. I piled on the fire all the wood I could find, and made as big a blaze as possible, yet I was compelled to stamp up and down to keep

warm.

At about 7 o'clock the moon rose, and the great white snow-slopes sparkled and scintillated under its bright light, while seawards, to the west, a ruddy glow illuminated the heavens, marking the place where the sun had set. The wind had dropped, and all was still-still with that intense quiet that is so oppressive at night, when one is surrounded by these gigantic cliffs and peaks that seem to threaten those

who invade their solitude. Range after range spread out between me and the ocean, brilliant in the moonlight, giving the feeling that one was standing on some extinct planet, for there was not a trace of vegetation, nothing but the bright white lights and shadows, like the scene one sees through a powerful telescope of the mountains of the moon. Life seemed a thing impossible in such surroundings, and as the air grew colder and colder, I wrapped myself up in my blankets and shuddered with an unreasoning fear that perhaps even the very atmosphere might die out and leave us frozen stiff in this frozen land.

I was brought back to the realities of life by hearing Vines shouting to me. He was now nearly at the camp, and after a few minutes more he arrived broken with fatigue, parched with thirst, and covered from head to foot with ice and snow, his beard and moustache being like one huge icicle, so coated were they. I gave him a hot drink that I had prepared, and got him into one of our sleeping-bags in the tent. His nose was badly frost-bitten, and he was pretty well chilled to the bone. Lanti said that he would prefer to descend to our lower camp, so after I had supplied him with some hot refreshment I let him go down with Pollinger.

Next morning Vines's beard was still covered with ice. Even in the tent we could not thaw it out. We collected together some of our effects and came down to the lower camp, for I was feeling very ill after so many days passed at 19,000 feet. I had slept in all fifteen nights there, and it had told heavily on my constitution. As the mountain had now been climbed by Zurbriggen, and by Vines with Lanti, I decided to go over into Chile for a week to rest and if possible get strong again after the fatigues we had endured at these high altitudes.

We soon reached our 14,000 foot camp, and after a good meal we started down on foot for the Inca. I had sent a man on the day before to send up our horses to take us down. The animals, however, had not arrived, but we had not gone far before we met them, and Vines and I then galloped down as fast as we could. All went well till we reached the first ford.

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There was a huge quantity of water rolling down, as the day was hot. I crossed first, but unfortunately my animal fell into a hole at almost the first step. I was lucky enough to be able to keep my seat and regain the bank. My second attempt was more successful, and I got across without accident. Vines drove his horse across, and descended the river-bank to a great boulder, from the top of which he was able to jump half-way across the stream. He arrived safely, with only a wetting. We soon reached our base camp at Inca, where we met Lightbody, who had left the Transandine Railway to join us in our work. Vines was suffering acutely from his frost-bitten nose, which was much swollen. I left Lightbody in charge of our camps, and on the evening of 19th February Vines and I started for Chile. We left the Inca at about 5 p.m. and reached Cuevas for dinner. At about 10 p.m., after the moon had risen, we started out to cross the Cumbre Pass. The people at Cuevas assured us that we should be attacked and killed on the Pass, but we did not listen to them. During the whole of our work, extending over seven months and more, in these regions, we were molested on only two occasions. The people are, as a rule, peaceable, and the upper valleys uninhabited. I have not heard of any combined system of highway robbery on these passes during the summer months.

The night was a perfect one, and we greatly enjoyed our solitary ride. We reached Portillo in Chile early in the morning, but only stopped here a short time to rest ourselves and the horses, and then pushed on to Salto del Soldado, the terminus of the Chilian part of the Transandine Railway.

From here we went on by rail to Los Andes, where we remained for a few days. For two nights I was very ill, suffering from fever and nausea brought on, no doubt, by my prolonged stays at our high-level camp, and seeming to have ruined my digestive organs completely for the time. From Los Andes we went to Santiago, remaining there for a day only, as it was very hot; we then went down to Limache, where we stayed for a couple of days, going on

afterwards to Valparaiso. But as my stay in Chile did not seem to be doing me any good I decided to return to the Inca next day. I was taken violently ill that night in Valparaiso with a high fever, and the doctor thought at first that I was about to have typhoid: I recovered, however, in a few days. Before returning to the mountains we were anxious to make some arrangements to test if it would not be possible to heliograph direct from our 19,000 foot camp to Valparaiso, as from the camp we could see the coast-line very distinctly. Mr. Dinnigan, of the West Coast Cable, very kindly offered to set up a heliograph upon the heights just above Valparaiso, and keep it aligned on the mountain side, where our camp was situated, during certain hours of fixed days that we should arrange by telegraph from Vacas. I returned from Valparaiso to Los Andes better in health than I had been for some time, thanks to the kindness and hospitality of Mr. Ball. At Los Andes we picked up the horses we had left there, and started by road for Juncal. During our stay the animals had got completely out of training. Habituated as they were to pick up a scant livelihood from the withered and dry snow-grass upon the Andes, the unaccustomed rich green forage of Chile had proved too great a temptation for them, and they were so fat when we arrived that it was with difficulty that we could make the girths meet round them. We had not gone very far before we saw that it would be impossible for us to reach Vacas with them that night, and we decided to leave them at Salto del Soldado and hire other animals to go on with; we could then send our arriero over from Argentina to fetch them when we returned. As we were riding along the road from Los Andes to Salto we met a Chilian gaucho, who followed us in a rather suspicious manner. As our horses were so much out of condition, whilst he was well mounted, we were powerless to get away from him. He stopped at a small posada, where he apparently met several of his friends, for we afterwards saw him come on reinforced by three companions. We pushed on as quickly as possible, for the road was lonely. The man had previously made one or two attempts to enter into conversa