The surf was breaking on the rocky shore, and our friends had a narrow escape from a drenching in going from the ship to the land. Fortunately they arrived in the morning, about an hour before the time for the departure of the train for Arequipa, and had not long to wait. The railway followed the coast for a short distance, and then turned northeastwardly, and began climbing the hills which formed the outward barrier of the lofty Andes. Up and onward zigzagged the train, through the barren hills that lead to the desert of Islay, and then out upon the dusty stretch of the desert, which it crossed in a line whose directness was in marked contrast to its tortuous course among the hills. At regular intervals there were tanks which supply the locomotives with water; they are fed from the aqueduct already mentioned, and wherever they have leaked, and moistened the dust, the grass grows luxuriantly. It is sixty miles across the desert; before the railway was constructed the journey was made on the backs of donkeys, and it was customary to cross it in the night, in consequence of the great heat and glare when the sun is shining. Frank copied into his note-book the following account of a traveller who crossed the desert from the coast to Arequipa, which he failed to reach before sunrise: "About five o'clock a clear whiteness appeared in the sky, the stars paled their lustre, and the day began to break. Soon a ruddy orange tint spread over the soil of the pampa, now become firm and compact. In a few minutes the disk of the sun appeared above the horizon; and as we marched full in the front of the god of day, we found ourselves in the midst of a luminous torrent, which so dazzled and incommoded us that to escape from this new torture we doubled ourselves up like hedgehogs. This anomalous and inconvenient posture rendered us unjust to the claims of the rising sun. Instead of welcoming his appearance we were inclined to wish he had remained out of sight, and it was not till eight o'clock that the sun, now high above the horizon, permitted us to raise our heads." [Illustration: INDIANS OF AREQUIPA.] "We did not suffer any of this inconvenience," said Frank, in his description of the journey, "as we were protected by the carriages, and could take any position we liked. When the sun passed the meridian we could look ahead without receiving the glare in our eyes; it was a great relief when we saw the peaks of the snow-clad mountains, and in a little while the eastern horizon was filled with them. Back of Arequipa was the lofty summit of Misti, one of the grandest of the South American volcanoes, then came Chichani, with its precipitous sides, and beyond it, farther to the north, was Coropuno. [Illustration: AREQUIPA, AND THE VOLCANO OF MISTI.]