Starting at four on a bright starlight morning, the perfect stillness and the wild grandeur of the boundless desert were very impressive, while there was a delicious freshness in the cool air. As the sun rose behind the mighty cordilleras which bounded the view, the whiteness of their snowy peaks became quite dazzling. Immediately in front was the perfect cone of the volcano of Arequipa; to the right the glorious peaks of Charcani and Chuquibamba; to the left the remarkable range of Pichupichu. It is probable that in no part of the world is so sublime a view of mountain peaks to be found as is presented at early dawn from this desert. But its sublimity is similar to that which is witnessed in a sunrise at sea; it fills the mind with an idea of vastness and grandeur, while it wants all the details which usually accompany and form no small part of the enjoyment derived from ordinary mountain scenery. Yet here, while gazing on those magnificent peaks, with no middle distance and no foreground, save the flat sea-like wilderness, we felt that any addition would have marred the simple glories of this unparalleled view. The desert is between 4000 and 5000 feet above the sea, and the cordillera peaks are, some more, some a little less, than 20,000 feet in height; so that, within a distance of under forty miles, we beheld mountains rising upwards of 16,000 feet from the point on which we stood: of no other mountains in the world could such a view be obtained. In this land of the Incas Nature has done her work on a truly gigantic scale. The desert, from Guerreros to the entrance to the gorge leading through the rocky hills which divide it from the plain of Arequipa, is upwards of forty miles across, while its length from the transverse valley of Tambo to that of Vitor must be about sixty. During the greater part of the day we were threading our way through arid mountain gorges, and up and down zigzag rocky paths strewn with the bones and carcasses of mules, under a scorching sun. A little pale purple _Nemophila_, a small _Crucifer_, and the weird _Cacti_, the appropriate inhabitants of the desert, are the only plants of this cheerless region; and a few obscene gallinazos, floating lazily in the upper air, with their keen-piercing eyes watching for some luckless mule to sink under its burden, were the sole representatives of animal life. [Illustration: AREQUIPA. Page 75.] At length our eyes were gladdened by the sight of the green vale of Tiavaya, in the campiña of Arequipa. The rows of tall willows, the bright green fields of lucerne, and white farm-houses, were a blessed relief after the monotonous glare of barren rocks and sand; but it was not until late at night, and after a ride of more than fifty miles, that we reached our hospitable lodging in the city of Arequipa.