16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
penitential fast; and in an undertone he
added, 'Even one of those infernal cavies.'
Dinner wound on from fresh anchovies, still
present in their countless millions, to steak of
tunny, to a tolerable sea-pie, and so to an expected
but still heartily welcome spotted dog.
Stephen ate in wolfish silence until the very
end of the sea-pie; then, being among old
friends eager to hear, he leant back, loosened
his waist-band, and told them something of
his botanizing and naturalizing journey south
from Lima to Arica, where he took ship for
Valparaiso. 'But to reach Arica,' he said, 'we
had to cross a very high pass, the Huechopillan,
at more than sixteen thousand feet, and
there my friend and I and alas a llama were
caught in what in those parts they call a viento
blanco and we should have perished if my
friend Eduardo had not found a little small
shelter in the rock. Indeed, the poor llama did