Page:Isaiah Bowman - Desert Trails of Atacama (1924).pdf/44

 den. Even the landmarks of the day before were so unfamiliar to us that we had little hope of returning along the route over which we had come. Thereafter we went west through a maze of ravines and volcanoes thoroughly covered with snow that fell almost without interruption until after dark. While there was still a little light we descended into a basin which | in- stantly recognized as that of Huasco which we had crossed the week before. The guides, Lindor and Vedro, insisted that we were a hundred miles farther south. In searching [or a settle- ment that he was sure he could find in a half hour, Lindor en- couraged us by calling out again and again that he was crossing a trail and that the village must be near. After nearly an hour of this | inspected the trail with a flashlight and found that it was our own and that we were crossing and recrossing it by circling around toward the left. We had ridden all day witha wind blowing from the left, and when it stopped we bore off in that direction, ‘The next morning the pattern of our trails was spread over a half mile of snow beyond our tent.

We camped in the snow again without supper quite over- come with fatigue from the steady roar of the wind in our ears all day long and the heavy walking we had done in the snow at the high altitude to relieve our famished mules. The following morning we found a spring a mile or more away at the southern edge of the basin and there filled our water flasks and watered our beasts. All that day we floundered in snow, making a southward course. Though the morning had been clear and cold, snow now fell occasionally, and the wind drifted that which had already fallen. By mid-afternoon the going was not only extremely difficult but unsafe, yet we were obliged to keep on and get below the snow line if possible. In spite of our difficult situation we stopped for a half hour at the end of the day to admire the most remarkable display of sunset colors that I have ever seen.

We descended into the steep head of a shallow ravine and got below the snow cover with the last of the daylight. An hour farther on and we found a turn in the ravine where there was at least a little shelter from the bitter down-valley wind and made there our fourth dry camp and went supperless to