From that moment, also, the neighbouring plain must have lost its fertilising stream, and become a desert.
JUNE 27, 1835.
We set out early in the morning, and by mid-day reached the ravine of Paypote, where there is a tiny rill of water, with a little vegetation, and even a few algarroba trees, a kind of mimosa.

From having firewood, a smelting-furnace had formerly been built here: we found a solitary man in charge of it, whose sole employment was hunting guanacos.

At night it froze sharply; but having plenty of wood for our fire, we kept ourselves warm.
JUNE 28, 1835.
We continued gradually ascending, and the valley now changed into a ravine.

During the day we saw several guanacos, and the track of the closely-allied species, the Vicuna: this latter animal is pre-eminently alpine in its habits; it seldom descends much below the limit of perpetual snow, and therefore haunts even a more lofty and sterile situation than the guanaco.

The only other animal which we saw in any number was a small fox: I suppose this animal preys on the mice and other small rodents which, as long as there is the least vegetation, subsist in considerable numbers in very desert places.