"We walked the greater part of the distance; it may surprise you to know that we walked over the easiest part of the route, and rode where the way was dangerous, except in a few places. Manuel told us that these men were accustomed to this work from the time they were able to carry burdens, and they knew every inch of the way. It was really safer for us to ride on their backs, in the dangerous places, than to attempt to walk; they knew exactly where to put their feet at every step, while we did not. We followed his advice and found it correct, and we were very careful, you may be sure, not to move a muscle when ascending or descending the steep slopes of the ravines." Three days were consumed in this journey of thirty miles. The porters with the baggage led the caravan, and sometimes they were an hour or more in advance of the travellers. At night they spread a small tent, which formed a part of their equipment, and were thus sheltered from the weather. It was necessary to wear rubber clothing, as the rains were frequent, and even with this precaution the evening generally found them wet through to the skin. But a change to dry clothing and several cups of steaming hot tea with their supper drove away all suggestions of rheumatism and kindred ills resulting from the dampness, and they finished the novel ride without a mishap. Fred took note of the changes in the animal life as they descended from the crest of the great Andean chain. In the mountains they frequently saw the condor, the giant bird of South America, whose range extends from the Isthmus of Darien to the Strait of Magellan. Both the youths were disappointed in the size of the condor, which had been grossly exaggerated in the tales of travellers and the accounts of the old historians. He has been represented as having wings spreading fifteen or twenty feet from tip to tip. The largest they could hear of measured thirteen feet, and even this was not entirely authentic; the largest they _saw_ was nine feet across the wings; Humboldt never found one of more than nine feet, and the largest specimen seen by Darwin measured eight and a half feet. The body from the tip of the beak to the end of the tail is from three to three and a half feet in extreme length. [Illustration: DEAD WHALE ON SHORE.] Equally exaggerated were the stories about the condors attacking men or carrying away children; they belong to the vulture family, and though they sometimes carry off small animals, they greatly prefer to feed upon carcasses of horses, cattle, or similar beasts. They live usually in the mountains, but on the west coast they come down to the sea to feed upon dead whales, and they serve as scavengers on some of the cattle estates of Peru and other South American countries. [Illustration: SHOT AT A CONDOR.]