222 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE CARNEGIE 



we made many friends among these instructors. One afternoon, 

 Commander Wyatt and Lieutenant Johnston paid us a call in their 

 little yellow sea-plane. Captain Ault had known Commander 

 Wyatt since 1923 when they had met in San Diego. At that 

 time Captain Ault was a member of the solar eclipse expedition 

 sent to California from our headquarters in Washington. After 

 these visitors had seen the ship, they invited Captain Ault to take 

 a flight over San Lorenzo Island and Callao. 



Soon after his return from Huancayo, Paul made a trip by air- 

 plane to Arequipa and Lake Titicaca. This short trip is one of 

 the most magnificent in the world. One travels southward along 

 the barren coast to Mollendo; crosses the coastal range; then a 

 wide desert; and finally spirals down into a green valley in which 

 Arequipa is situated. This ancient city, once the capital of Peru, 

 has remained almost unchanged since the days of Pizzaro. 



When flying over the deserts along the coast of Peru one sees 

 to best advantage those curious traveling sand-dunes which are 

 characteristic of the region. They are shaped like a horse's 

 hoof and measure from ten to one hundred feet across. Each of 

 these dunes is composed of sand-particles of a single color, so 

 that there will be white ones and black ones moving side by side 

 over the plain. The direction of the prevailing wind can be told 

 by noting the orientation of these dunes. 



When the various members of the staff of the Carnegie had 

 come together again from their excursions into the mountains. 

 Dr. and Mrs. Tovar invited us all to a dinner. Among the other 

 delicacies they served were oysters sent down from New York on 

 ice. No memory of Peru is more delightful than the evening 

 spent in their home. 



Our last days in port were spent in the company of some of 

 the observers from the Huancayo Magnetic Observatory who had 

 come down to Callao to return our visit. These people only 

 rarely have an opportunity for leaving their isolated post and 

 seemed to envy us our wandering existence. 



Several changes in the crew had been made in Peru. There 

 were two new cabin-boys: one, a young lad from Ecuador; the 

 other, a fine Bohemian who had been a member of one of the nu- 



