84 NOTES OF A NATURALIST. 



of distress with which I viewed the prospect of losing 

 precious specimens, and seeing shapes of beauty con- 

 verted into repulsive masses of corruption, for want 

 of the material necessary for their preservation. I 

 addressed an urgent note to Mr. Nation, on whose 

 sympathy as a brother naturalist I could safely count, 

 telling him that unless I could find two reams of 

 suitable drying-paper on my return, I should infallibly 

 require accommodation in a lunatic asylum at Lima. 



The scenery at Chicla is wild, but neither very 

 beautiful nor very imposing. As in the lower valley 

 of the Rimac, the slopes of the mountains are steep, 

 but the summits are deficient in boldness and variety 

 of form. Those lying on the watershed of the Cor- 

 dillera, at a distance of fifteen or twenty miles, ap- 

 parently range from seventeen to eighteen thousand 

 feet in height, and on the first day of our visit showed 

 but occasional streaks and patches of snow, while the 

 sombre tints of the rocks exhibited little variety of 

 hue even in the brightest sunshine. 



Although the stream at Chicla is the main branch 

 of the Rimac, its volume is here much reduced, not 

 having yet received the numerous tributaries that fall 

 into it between this place and Matucana. It is here 

 no more than a brawling torrent, swelling rapidly 

 after even a very moderate fall of rain, but prevented 

 from ever dwindling very low by the snows, of which 

 some patches at least remain at all seasons on the 

 upper summits of the Cordillera. In a country without 

 wood, and where the art of building in stone had 

 made little progress, one of the most serious obstacles 

 to any advance in civilization must have arisen from 



