“The view from the top of Tupungato is in many ways even finer than that obtained from Aconcagua. The expanse of ocean visible toward the west is less vast, but there is ample compensation in the outlook over the great unknown plain on the eastern side. The Pampas of Argentina stretch almost without a break from our very feet to the South Atlantic Ocean. The Andes seem to rise up from Santiago in ever ascending gradations, until at last they culminate in the immense mass of Tupungato; behind, they fall brokenly away; the mountains disappear; and a country almost fen-like in its monotonous flatness succeeds. The only break on the Argentine side is that of the Sierra de la Plata, not many more than twenty miles to the northeast. On the Chilean side a score of dark peaks rear their heads, a sinister array of precipitous impossibilities from which any climber would turn away in despair. To the north and to the south the same great barriers arise. Looking along this distinct and sharp edged chain to the north and south it was hard to understand how any frontier question between the republics could come about. “That Aconcagua was a high mountain we well knew. We had all suffered from its height, but, when near at hand, it was quite impossible to realize the vastness of its proportions. Not so from where we now stood on a pinnacle sixty miles away. I had long known it was over four thousand feet higher than any mountain within thirty miles of it, but it looked ten thousand feet higher as it reared its immense head and shoulders from amongst its brothers, like some huge rock projecting out of the waves of the sea. It stood before me without rival, even the great ridges of Juncal did not challenge it, although they were almost thirty miles nearer. Behind Aconcagua, but almost forty miles farther, and too far off for comparison, I could see the white slopes of Mercaderio.” The guanaco and llama are animals which are peculiar to the Andean regions. The former is especially plentiful in Patagonia and the southern Andean ranges, and many of them are found in Southern Chile. To the natives it means food, garments and tents, so that it is hunted both for its meat and skin. Without the guanaco the question of existence would be a difficult one for those people to solve. The vicuña, which is found in Northern Chile and Bolivia, is of the same family but smaller and more beautiful. Its fur is very valuable and this animal is becoming scarce. The alpaca is still smaller but flocks of this animal are maintained as we herd sheep. The wool is almost as fine and soft as silk, and, after a year’s growth, becomes almost a foot long.