Page:Travels in Uruguay.pdf/52

 curious things, had I been on horseback on the winding road. And I have generally remarked that travellers on foot see much more of a place than those who go by a conveyance. I was much exhausted with the first hour and a-half's ascent, as it was very steep. I-luckily arrived at a large mushroom-shaped erection, thatched, with a table round the centre upright, and benches and seats, which had.evidently been provided as a refreshment or pic-nic place for visitors. To rest myself I laid down on this table for twenty minutes, gazing at the solitary wildness of the forest around me, till I caught myself almost napping. I then started up and paced ou, with my coat on my arm and umbrella overhead, for an hour more, making two and a quarter hours, at three miles an hour, from commencing the ascent.And I was glad to find a refreshment place at the foot of the last winding ascent, which, for 500 feet, is very steep to the top. Here I procured a bottle of Ind and Coope's beer for two shillings, and some inferior bread and cheese;.and, like a giant refreshed, I valiantly reached the top. It was a fine clear day. Even the Organ mountains had no nightcap on them, which they so frequently have. Everything in the vast terrestrial expanse of the landscape was clearly and distinctly defined, to the most distant hills,from the dry state of the atmosphere; and from the same reason the distances were very deceiving. A short thick wall surrounds the small platform on the summit of the Corcovada, which is hardly perceptible from below. And here you might, in looking down and around, imagine yourself transported to an "Arabian Nights" scene. The sight was so gorgeous, it was astonishing. You could peep.