IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE GLOBE. 189 



portance may be judged of from the fact that the Indians of 

 Bolivia consume annually 6 millions of kilogrammes of its dried 

 leaves. 



The continual rains which had lately fallen rendered the route 

 I had to pursue nearly impassable. 



On the 28th I passed through the village of Carcuata, and the 

 next day that of Circuata, from uhich the Rio de la Paz is dis- 

 tant a few leagues. The forests wliich cover the mountains here 

 are very picturesque, but not so magnificent as those of Brazil. 

 I met with several species of Cinchona. The valley of Cana- 

 mina, which is entered as soon as Ciicuata is left, is very fertile, 

 and not only the Coca but the Coffee-tree, Sugar-cane, and Pine- 

 apples are cultivated in it. A verdant forest, watered by the 

 clear Rio Miguilia, separates Canamina fiom the Rio de la Paz, 

 the muddy water of which flows between two immense banks 

 and separates the province of Ynquisivi from that of Yungas, of 

 which Chulumani is the capital, 



• To reach this town I had again to cross two small rivers, the 

 Puri and the Solacama ; I tlien proceeded to Ocobaya to look for 

 a particular species of Quinquina which 1 was told grew there. 

 The species turned out to be Cinchona amygdalifolia : it grows 



effect this the mountain sides are cut into a series of narrow ledges, on each 

 of which is a row of coca bushes. The ledges are kept up by little stone 

 walls, which not only prevent the earth from slipping and drying too much, 

 but also protect the growing point and root of the young plants from the 

 too scorching rays, by their slight projection above the level of the earth. 

 This arrangement facilitates, too, the frequent irrigations which the coca, 

 in some seasons, requires. The leaves are gathered three, and sometimes, 

 but rarely, four times a year — in March, July, and November ; and what is 

 very strange, the plant, accustomed to these periodical disturbances, which 

 represent so many winters, goes several times through all the phases it would 

 naturally go through but once in the course of the year ; so that it produces 

 fresh flowers and fruit, as well as fresh leaves. Of these three gatherings, 

 the first is the most productive. The seeds, too, ripen best in March : they 

 are sown soon after they are gathered, and spring up a week or a fortnight 

 afterwards. 



After a certain number of years the soil of the coca plantations becomes 

 exhausted ; it is then abandoned, and is re-converted by Nature into forest. 

 I well remember descending the side of a mountain to reach a quinquina 

 which had attracted my notice, and finding, to my great surprise, a flight 

 of well-made steps, which were nothing but the ledges of an old coca 

 plantation, covered at the time of which I speak with large trees loaded with 

 parasites, climbers, and spiny palms. 



As soon as the leaves are gathered they are spread on a floor composed 

 of slabs of black schist, and left to dry in the burning rays of the sun. 



The Indians never chew the coca leaf alone : it seems that some alkali is 

 necessary to develop its properties. The ashes of plants furnish the alkali, 

 which is obtained in some places from the Cereus. in others from the Cheno- 

 podium Quinoa, or else from a Gomphrena called Moco-moco, which is very 

 common in all the temperate parts of Bolivia, and which is also used in the 

 manufacture of soap. 



