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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 blazinff 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 public 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 

 the 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 

 recesses, and reflecting their darkened images; the decayed 

 thatch of the houses; the grey and brown dresses of the 

 Indians, whose dark faces are mottled with purple blotches 

 from constant exposure to the bleak atmosphere of the 



