196 
surrounded by rugged hills, The satisfaction we felt at 
having arrived at the end of our journey was increased upon 
entering a house fitted up by the Pasco Peruvian Company, 
and finding ourselves in a comfortable apartment, with 
boarded floor and glass windows, and a coal fire blazing in 
an English grate. Mr. M was the only one who continued 
to suffer from the puna after our arrival; he was seriously 
ill for some days, and confined to his room upwards of a 
week. 
This celebrated spot, from which so much wealth has 
issued, has a wretched appearance; the town consists of 
narrow straggling lanes, the houses are small and dark, and 
the mass of the people squalid and miserable. Heaps of 
refuse from the mines surround the town, which is built 
immediately over some of them, and there are many shafts 
opening into the publie roads without any fence or covering; 
so that, on a dark night, it is impossible to pass from one 
part of the town to another without imminent risk. 
I was struck here, as at Huayllay, by the gloomy aspect of 
the scene, notwithstanding the sun was shining in the 
midst of a bright sky; but I soon perceived that the very 
clearness of the sky was the cause of this phenomenon. From 
the perfect transparency of the atmosphere, the sun's rays 
are unimpeded, and a dazzling light falls on objects directly 
exposed to their influence, while those that are in shade 
receive very little indirect light from the dark blue heavens; 
and thus, a striking contrast is produced between the glare 
of the illuminated surfaces and the unrelieved shade, very 
different from the effect of the diffused light in the hazy 
atmosphere of the coast. This gloomy effect is increased by 
he total: absence of trees, and the general prevalence of 
sombre hues in the surrounding objects: the hills of bluish 
limestone, with the meagre. unhealthy vegetation thinly 
scattered upon them; the stagnant lakes, buried in their 
POM and reflecting their darkened images; the decayed 
thatch of the houses; the grey and brown dresses of the 
im dark faces are mottled with purple blotches 
Constant exposure to the bleak atmosphere of the 
