TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 09, 11 January 1908, Page 10

TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE.

VII.— IN THE HEART OF THE ANDES. (By Captain J. VV. P. Benson.) "Over the seas and far away," over leagues of , dreary pampas duo west from Buenos A,ires, are the mighty Andes, the backbone>of tho South American Continent, dividing the Republic of Argentina from that of Chili. To tho traveller who is visiting Argentina for the first time there is nothing in the long wharves, and the crowded shipping of tho capital, with its handsome streets and spacious squares, to give any promise of those towering mountains, inaccessible and inhospitable, where the Incas, it is said, buried their treasure, and where many a seoker for it has lost his life. FIRST CLIMB ON ACONCAGUA, When Dr. Gucssfeldt made his first attempt — nearly twenty-three years ago -—to climb that giant of tho Andes, the loftiest mountain of the new world, tho insuperable Aconcagua, riding up a /dismal defile, which appeared a hopeless cul-de-sac — for an immense barrier of stone, three thousand feet high, appeared to make access to Aconcagua impossible- — be was startled m see, lying against a rock but a fow paces before him, a human skeleton, to which there still hung a few rags of clothing. It was doubtless one of the Chilian treasure-seekers, who overcome with fatigue, his provisions exhausted, dying of hunger and thirst, and probably overwhelmed by a blinding snowstorm, had lain down there to rest— for ever ; and who now appeared before tho in. trepid climber like* the first of the Phantom Crew >of Hendrik Hudson to Rip Van^ Winkle, when ho attempted to- disco vet" the treasure hidden away in the lastness of the Rocky Mountains. Bift a longer sleep than for twenty years is the fato of the treasure-seeker in the Andes ; unless indeed he sets out with a properly equipped party; bu; then such a sensible person could never ba a treasure-seeker. As for Guessfeldt-, nothing daunted by this horribly weird, dumb, but significant figure of warning, he went on. accompanied only by two inexperienced Chilians. A DARING CLI-MBER. The great wall of rock which interposed 1 between the defile in which; he was, and /-which, at first glance, had appeared to <iut off all approach tc Aconcagua, proved after all to be no( insurmountable ; for in the middle oi it there was a couloir which led upwards to a gap in tho ridge. It was half-past ten o'clock at night when the little party reached the top of the rocky barrier. Crossing a snowfield in brillianl moonlight,, it was nearly two o'clock in the morning when they began the real ascent of the lower ' slope of the Aconcagua. The steepness and roughness of tht ascent, and the increasing coldness oi the keen wind, soon had its effects upor the two Chilians, and they became stricken ,as with a kind of panic, and implored Guessfeldt to turn back, bul he would not hear of it, and did all ir his power to encourage them to pro ceedw Their progress was painfullj slow every now and then the Chilian; would stop declaring they could nol move a. step further; but they wen urged on by the encouraging words oi their leader. At length day broke and at ten o'clock one of -the Chilians collapsed, his feet were frozen, and ii was utterly impossible for him to move another yard. » Leaving nim where h< was, Guessfeldt, having 'induced the i othea\ man to accompany him, pressed 'forward, and, they eventually reached a point' about 1300 feet below the actual summit, which is 23,080 feet above the level of. the sea. - But there theii attempt finished. A gathering mist around the peak; Bleet beginning to fall and an insufficiency of provisions, determined 'Guegsf eldt' to retrace his Steps to his base camp, whither they brought tho unfortunate Chilian who had been lef t_ behind. Next day a neavy snowstorm rendered their base camp— open and unsheltered as it was — untenable ; so breaking it up they withdrew to a beautiful and fertile valley, called the Valle Hermosa. i A SECOND ATTEMPT. Aconcagua was still unconquered. But Guessfeldb was not done with yet. Nine days later he made a second attempt ; but again the fates were against him, for not only did he suffer agonies of pain from an abscess which had formed under a tooth, but shortly after the real ascent had, begun, a snowstorm Came on, and, although they had not reached so high an altitude as at thoir first attempt, they had to give it up; returning to their base- camp, and thence back to Chile, thoroughly worn out with the heroic efforts they had made to reach the summit. For thirteen years after Gucssfeldt's failure, no further attempt was mad"c to gain the virgin summit of Aconcagua. But in tho winter of 1896, the great peak which had, up to that time, defied all efforts to iurmounfc it, hard at last to acknowledge defeat. Its summit was reached by two members of Mr. Fitzgerald's party, fiistly by Fitzgenld'3 old guide, Matties Zurbriggen, and afterwards by Mr. Stuart' Vines. SUCCESS AT LAST. The latter has given ar graphic account of the ascent, and of the -view from, .the summit, in Mr. Fitzgerald's book, "Ihe Highest Andes." Fitzgerald himself failed to reach tho summit; hegot to. a height of 22,000 feet, ,but then— to' use his own words'— "l had to stop, panting for breath, my struggles alternating with violent fits of nausea. At times I would fall down, and each timo had greater difficulty m rising; black specks swam across my si^lit. I was like ona walking in a dream, so dizzy and sick that the whole mountain seemed whirling round with, me." i ■\Yhen I made my first attempt to cross the Andes, it was at the--begin-ning of our summer, that is Argentina's winter. 1 had been told that it was impossible to cross at that time of tho year, and that it was madness to attempt it. I nevertheless determined to try, and I nearly lost my life as a consequence, not by reason of the ice or snow, or lack of provisions, but bywell, you shall -see. Special arrangements had most kindly been made for mv by tho General il'anager of the Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway Company. Aitor a 'monotonous journey over the hundreds of miles of dreary Panics, which separate the Southern Atlantic from the mighty Andes, I arrived it Mendoza, which* lies at tho base >f the foot-hills of the Andes, and there [ was met by the- railway officials. After looking round the -old town, and he new— -the former in ruins, caused by ,hat terrible earthquake of 1861, when en thousand, peoplo were killad — I was Iriven out to ono of the numerous vine\rards -with Which the little town is sur•pundoti. I' forget how many hundreds >f thousands of acres there are under »mo cultivation, but tho country for nilcs around is one huge vineyard, vhich realises something like two mil ion oVeiV year. And it ia all long b# irrigation f roni tb.6 river Men-

doza,- whose only source is the melting snow. BY RAIL TO THE A>*DES. Od returning to the station we found a special train awaiting us on ihe nar- ; row-gauge Transandine line. We wero ! to go as far as we possibly could, until our progress was blocked by the snow 1 and ice, and then return. ' So,' off we started, a railway official' and myself. Just before wo got into | the foot-hills of the Andesi we wero to get up in front of tho engine on to the small platform just above the cowcatcher. I shall never forget that ride as long as I live ; it Is for ever graven in my memory, not only by reason of the event that brought it to so sudden a termination, but also by the sensations produced by ihe ride itself. Do you know what it is to ride on the front of an engine? I don't mean strapped into special chairs fixed on to the cow-catcher, but standing up abova the cow-catcher on the narrow platform holding on to the rail which runs round the side 3 and front of the en> ginp. It is lika nothing else that I 'know of. The exhilarating sensation of rushing through the dry, crisp air • the distant panorama of the snow-clad j heights towering over the foot-hills just ahead, the whole glowing clear and bright in the dazzli^r sunshine; the spice of danger which your position of insecurity which is uppermost in your 1 mind for thfe first half hour or so as 1 you hold on to that rail like \grim .death, especially when swinging round a sharp curve. ON A COW-CATCHER THROUGH A But this feeling soon gives way to one of unalloyed pleasure and excitement, only to be renewed when we plunge into a great black hole in a wall of rock before us— a tunnel. Oh! but ifc is an extraordinary sensation being pushed on with irresistible force from behind, on, on, into the impenetrable darkness. It is with a feeling .of intense relief that you suddenly become' aware 01 a small, bright spot like a pin-prick through a solid "black mask ; the spot grows larger and larger, and out you dash into a light ko brilliant that it almost blinds you, the contrast is so great. A ride in a railway traitf is usually as safe as existence can be, safer than walking about tho streets, if the line lt> open for traffic; but over a portion of .a railway system which is closed for traffic for a season, it is a different thing. The condition of the track itself is unknown, there may have been a fall of rock; trollies collecting firewood may be on the line, there- are endless possible dangers on a. line closed for traffic, and when you are perched up in front of tho engine, these dangers become accentuated. A COLLISION. Now the line for some two or three stations beyond Mendoza, ";vas still open for traffic ; bub beyond that point it was dosed. On we went, however, swinging round sharp curves, clinging to the mountain side like a fly to a window pane, now running along th« edge- of a precipice with the tossing, tumbling torrent of the River Mendoza deep down below. With a sweep that would have brought the engine almost on to the rearmost carriage had there been one^ — I forgot to tell you that w» were now on the engine by itself, the two coaches having been left behind at Cacheuta, beyond which place tho line was closed — wo swung round the craggy corner of a hill, on a mere ledge of rock, just wide enougn for the narrow gauge line and nothing more, overhanging a precipitous descent of niiuiy /hundreds of feet, when, horrori immediately in front of us, not twenty yards away, was a trolly laden with firewood. The driver applied the brake with a jerk that nearly wrenched my arm from th,& socket, I just had time to yell "Look out," when crash Fwo dashed info the trolly. I remember thinking in that- instant of time_ before- tho fearful impact, that nothing could save us from toppling over that precipice, then-, a flash of thought of homo, and those T had left behind me. I have a confused recollection of some cries, and a feeling as though i were being struck oil over my body with something very hard, then all was still. I- turned to my companion, his eyes were closed, hi 3 face as paly as death, he had relaxed his hold on the rail, and- was in the act of falling outwards towards tho precipice. . 1 saw all thi3 as I made a frantic clutch at his coat. I realised that if I could not hold him, he would fall headlong down that dreadful abyss, and be dashed to pieces upon the jagged rocks standing out of the boiling torrent below. His weight, however, was too much for me-, and before I knew what was Happening, we had both fallen from the engine on to the ledge of rock. But my sudden clutch had altered the direction of his fall, we both had fallen more forward than sideways, and though we were perilously near the edge of the precipice, we were not over it. The fail had restored him to consciousness, and as we got upon our feet ,and looked round upon the debris of the shattered trolly,, the firewood lying scattered on the line, ana the mad torrent of the River .Mendoza bellow, wo realised, as we grasped each oiher by the hand, how narrowly we had twice, in the space of a moment °r escaped a terrible death. The lino too was blocked, and w« were too much shaken and bruised to continue our journey, moreover we knew that we could got but little further, on account, of the snow and ire which completely buried the tin© a mil© or two beyond. . And my first atte??t to , cro ? s tlle Andes came to a sudden, dramatic, and unexpected conclusion. / I was sorely disappointed not to get as far, at least, as Puente dei Inca. the wonderful natural bridge, where Fitzgerald had pitched his base camp. But it was not to be.