the last of the green barley we hac carried from Suisigua. We had carried an extra water supply for ourselves and left over until the next day a flask apiece for ourselves and the guides. Though there were many signs of water action all about, there was as little available water as in the nitrate desert. We had expected to find it everywhere in the high mountain country; but it was carly winter, and winter is the dry season in the mountains. Doubtless the alluvium held sweet water, but there was little of it after the first day. Most of the streams west of the line of salars have rock floors or run over a thin layer of coarse rock débris. We could return to Laqueca and on the morning of the second day anxiously discussed this possi- bility. The guides had inquired of the llama herders at La- queca and Suisigua as to the condition of the trail along the Salar de Empexa and were told that only bitter waters could be found. They advised taking a westward-bearing trail, and this we did. Although we traveled through high and broken country all day, we again passed not even a trickle of water ex- cept in the early morning. Through a belt of variegated cop- per-bearing rock, where we saw signs of prospecting at an earlier time, there ran a tiny stream; but it was so salty that we could drink none of it, and the mules but little. At sight of every ravine we confidently expected water only to be disap- pointed, and at nightfall we were in a worse situation than be- fore. Our water flasks were now quite empty, and we were suffering from thirst. It was useless to prepare food. The mules refused to eat the dry barley that we had carried from the start for an emergency. The guides came to our tent and mournfully confessed that they were hopelessly lost. Our camp was under the lee of a rock cliff, and our dejected mules were tied to the tola bushes that grew on the floor of the ravine below us.
All day the sky had been overcast, and this added to the anxiety of the guides who feared that we should be caught ina snowstorm. Yct in fact this ended our anxicty; for after mid- night snow began to fall, and we immediately melted a kettle of it and had tea and biscuits all round. By daybreak several inches of snow had fallen, and the trails were completely hid-
