186 KELATION BETWEEN CLIMATE A^D VEGETATION 



lowing, they chew the flowers of a Bignoniad (Lapacho), one 

 of the prettiest of their native trees. 



I now retraced my steps to Tarija, visiting on my way the 

 Chaneses Indians, a tribe of the Chiriguanos, inhabiting the 

 valley of Itiuro, on the borders of the Argentine Republic. 



On the 14th of August I was again in the valley of Cinti, which 

 a scorching sun had completely deprived of the beautiful verdure 

 I had so much admired six months before. The road to Chu- 

 quisaca extends nearly due north from this place, and crosses an 

 arid country, consisting of an uninterrupted succession of rocky 

 hill and dale of one uniform grey colour : the monotony of this 

 scene is broken here and there by a hut inhabited by Indians 

 whose life is one long lethargy, passively combating with cold 

 and hunger. This canton forms part of the great table-land of 

 Bolivia, situate between the Cordillera of the coast and that of 

 the interior, and which, always rising, extends as far as the 

 great Lake of Chuquito, where it is continued by the table-land 

 of Peru. 



After a two days' journey in this M'retched country I reached 

 the bed of a small river called the Mataco ; and further on I, for 

 the third time, crossed the Pilcomayo ; I then passed through 

 the town of Ystala, situate a few leagues oidy from the capital, 

 where I arrived on the 19th of August, and where I learnt that 

 my proposed expedition to the Paraguay had to be abandoned. 



The climate of Chuquisaca is, notwithstanding its great eleva- 

 tion (2844 yards), delightful,* and although there is scarcely a 

 tree that can be said to be indigenous, a large proportion of those 

 introduced grows well : I saw there many Palms, one of which 

 could not have been less than 60 feet high. Early in October I 

 went to Potosi, about 90 miles from the capital and 12,000 feet 

 above the level of the sea. Whilst approaching this town I felt, 

 for the first time, that oppression which is due to the rarefaction 

 of the air, but which is sometimes attributed to an emanation 

 from the earth ; the Spaniards call it soroche. The country all 

 around presents one dismal aspect of pebbles and broken rock, 

 without any vegetation whatever, except here and there where 

 the Indians have laboriously cleared small spaces on the moun- 

 tain sides from the larger stones, and succeeded in rearing a 

 little barley. Nearer the town, however, in places which it has 

 been possible to irrigate, some fields of Lucern may be seen. 

 The Cerro de Potosi itself is iron-coloured, and its anomalous 

 appearance seems to indicate an origin different from that of the 



* The mean temperature of this town has not, that I know of, been ascer- 

 tained ; but ] should not think it could be far from 13^ C. : that of Potosi is 

 probably 9^ lower. 



