of the Pre-Cordillera. Some difficult going is experienced on the gravelly cactus-dotted alluvial plains and basin floors that lic between Salta and the eastern mountain wall of the lofty Puna de Atacama in this the third stage of their long journey. The trails however are selected so as to make the best use of such water and grass as the region affords. They strike the irrigated tracts in the valleys along the castern border of the mountains where the cattle may be rested and turned into fresh pastures to be well fed before the fourth stage of the jour- ney. In these high valleys the cattle also become somewhat accustomed to the altitude and the cold, for the climate is here temperate instead of subtropical as in the Chaco from which they have come.
Once prepared for the journey, they then enter the fourth stage, that of climbing the eastern mountain wall and crossing the Puna de Atacama. It seems at first an incredible feat that they are required to perform. The trails are stony and steep, and at the end of two or three days at most the droves of cattle find themselves upon the bleak, wind-swept puna where only the coarsest grasses and widely scattered watering places may be found. Finely bred stock would perish at once; but these hardy beasts are able to go two or three days without water, as they must in the most difficult sections of the puna. They travel only about fifteen miles a day, lumbering along in heavy fashion, bellowing now and then, straying whenever possible, yet urged forward relentlessly by the mounted gauchos. An occasional one becomes sick and is left behind when it can no longer be goaded on. Once abandoned it perishes. Almost every mile of the trail is marked by skeletons picked clean by the condors.
The cattlemen are Indians or half-breeds from the Salta re- gion or the bordering valleys. They know all the trails and wa- tering places, and they know what the cattle can stand. Their fare consists of charqui chufio (dried potatoes), rice, and a few vegetables for soup. They carry no tents, but sleep on the saddle blankets of the mules, of which they take along a few as riding and baggage animals. They wear ponchos as a pro- tection from the wind; and, skillful as they are, they find diffi-
