408 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



Caxamarca is extraordinarily fertile. In every direction are 

 seen cultivated fields and gardens, intersected by avenues of 

 willows, varieties of the Datura (bearing large red, white, and 

 yellow flowers), Mimosas, and beautiful Quinuar trees (our 

 Polylepsis villosa, a Rosacea approximating to the Alehemilla 

 and Sanguisorba). The wheat harvest in the Pampa de 

 Caxamarca is, on the average, from fifteen to twenty-fold; but 

 the prospect of abundant crops is sometimes blighted by night 

 frosts, caused by the radiation of heat towards the cloudless 

 ■sky, in the strata of dry and rarefied mountain air. These 

 night frosts are not felt within the roofed dwellings. 



Small mounds, or hillocks, of porphyry (once perhaps islands 

 in the ancient lake) are studded over the northern part of the 

 plain, and break the wide expanse of smooth sandstone. From 

 the summit of one of these porphyry hillocks, we enjoyed a 

 most beautiful prospect of the Cerro de Santa Polonia. The 

 ancient residence of Atahuallpa is on this side, surrounded by 

 fruit gardens, and irrigated fields of lucern (Medicago sativa), 

 called by the people here Campos de alfalfa. In the distance 

 are seen columns of smoke, rising from the warm'baths of Pul- 

 tamarca, which still hear the name of Banos del Inca. I found 

 the temperature of these sulphuric springs to be 15 6°. 2 Fahr. 

 Atahuallpa was accustomed to spend a portion of each year at 

 these batl s, where some slight remains of his palace have 

 survived the ravages of the Conquistadores. The large deep 

 basin or reservoir (el tragadero) for supplying these baths 

 with water, appeared to me, judging from its regular circular 

 form, to have been artificially cut in the sandstone rock, over 

 one of the fissures whence the spring flows. Tradition 

 records that one of the Inca's sedan-chairs, made of gold, was 

 sunk in this basin, and that all endeavours to recover it have 

 proved vain. 



Of the fortress and palace of Atahuallpa, there also remain 

 but few vestiges in the town, which now contains some 

 beautiful churches. Even before the close of the sixteenth 



