50 Sketch of the Mine of Pasco. 
bly ; and even without this, in the months of August and September, 
it descended to 28° and 30° below freezing point. ‘The water begins 
to freeze when the sky is clear, at six in the evening; and even that in 
the rooms freezes very often ; it begins to boil at 180° Fah*. From 
the middle of October to the end of April, this climate is insupport- 
able, because of snow, hail, and storms which benumb the spirits 
of the inhabitants, and hinder them from going out of their houses; 
the lightning also does almost every year, a good deal of damage. 
No branch of agriculture is pursued here, notwithstanding potatoes, 
ocas, rellocas, mocas and barley are of a rigid temperament, and if 
the last be sown in the rough ground, it does not produce grain ; but 
still, good fruits, pulse, and other eatables are to be found in market, 
which they bring from Huanuco, about twenty leagues distant, and from 
the neighboring villages. ‘The temperature is so severe that the fowls 
cannot hatch, nor the lamas breed. 'The women that labor, are 
obliged to go into a milder temperature, if they do not wish their 
children to die; but for some time past, those who enjoy any con- 
veniences, are spared this trouble by means of chimneys, which 
were introduced by the English about two years ago, for although they 
use the brasier, it does not warm them sufficiently. It is observ- 
ed, that those who have just arrived, and those who are not accustom- 
ed to the climate and have weak lungs, suffer from the breast, respi- 
ration failing when they stir; here it is called veta, since it is believed 
the veins they dig in mining, produce this complaint; the want of 
breath (also called borochus,) arises to a considerable degree from 
the tenuity of the air, owing to the great height; so that even ani- | 
mals fall dead, when exhausted by dragging up heavy burdens. The 
disease which attacks the workmen, is the palsy, occasioned by the 
idden transition from a high temperature to a colder, and also by 
the continued use they make of quicksilver. 
Those who suffer from this, are called azogados. 1 have seen 
some, who, in consequence of breathing mercurial vapors for a few 
moments, were rendered incapable, by palsy, of raising their fingers 
to the mouth. But the most common disease is the pleurisy or pai 
in the side, and putrid fever or tabardillo. The first is cured by tak- 
ing an infusion of mullara, a very small herb which grows thereabouts, 
or with that called “dead man’s bone.” The first plant has very small 
eee aN 
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thine’ cout 
ast page. since Saus- 
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: oe S Saewe mew apy teh 
sure found water to boil, on the top of Mount Blane, at 187°, Jed, 
