five in the evening
`` On a mule ? '' `` No , in an easy chair . '' The CATAPEZ could not make him out , but shrugged his shoulders and resumed his post at the head of the party . At five in the evening they stopped in a gorge of no great depth , some miles above the little town of Loja , and encamped for the night at the foot of the Sierras , the first steppes of the great Cordilleras . NOTHING of importance had occurred hitherto in the passage through Chili ; but all the obstacles and difficulties incident to a mountain journey were about to crowd on the travelers now . One important question had first to be settled . Which pass would take them over the Andes , and yet not be out of their fixed route ?