406 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



our Stipa eriostachya), we found a beautiful Calceolaria (C. 

 Sibthoty hides), which we should not have expected to see at 

 such an elevation. 



Near the town of Micuipampa there is a high plain called 

 the Llano or the Painpa de Xavar. In this plain there 

 have been found, extending over a surface of more than four 

 English square miles, and immediately under the turf, im- 

 mense masses of red gold ore and wire-like threads of pure 

 silver. These are called by the Peruvian miners remolinos, 

 clavos, and re fas manteadas, and they are overgrown by the 

 roots of the Alpine grasses. Another level plain, to the west 

 of the Purgatorio, and near the Quebrada de Chiquera, is 

 called the Choropampa (the Muscle- Shell Plain), the word 

 churu signifying in the Quichua language a muscle or cockle, 

 particularly a small eatable kind, which the people of the 

 country now distinguish by their Spanish names hostion or 

 mexillon. The name Choropampa refers to fossils of the 

 cretaceous formation, which in this plain are found in such 

 immense numbers that at an early period they attracted the 

 attention of the natives. In the Choropampa there has been 

 found near the surface of the earth, a rich mass of pure 

 gold, spun round, as it were, with threads of silver. This 

 fact proves how slight may be the affinity between many of the 

 ores upheaved from the interior of the earth, through fissures 

 and veins, and the nature of the adjacent rock, and how little 

 relative antiquity exists between them and that of the forma- 

 tion they have broken through. The rock of the Gualgayoc, 

 as well as that of the Fuentestiana, is very watery, whilst in 

 the Purgatorio perfect dryness prevails. In the Purgatorio, 

 notwithstanding the height of the strata above the sea-level, I 

 found to my astonishment, that the temperature in the mine 

 was 67°. 4 Fahr., whilst in the neighbouring Mina de Guada- 

 lupe the water in the mine was about 52°. 2 Fahr. In the 

 open air the thermometer indicates only 42°. 1 Fahr., and the 

 miners, who labour very hard, and who work almost without 



