LAKE TITICACA 137 



explore. I made the acquaintance there of an intelligent 

 Norwegian, a Mr. Schjolberg, who manages one of the 

 mines of the district and with whom I stayed for about 

 eight days while running about the province. He was 

 most polite and attentive to me and took endless pains 

 to have me see all there was of interest. His wife is quite 

 a pleasant English woman, and they have a charming 

 home in this arid place, which anywhere else would be 

 a gem. The house is built directly upon the rocks of the 

 coast, so close that the spray often covers the immense 

 balcony which runs in front of the place and which is a 

 magnificent play-ground for their children. Behind the 

 house rises a high hill which looks as if it mio-ht slide 

 down and crush the village clustered at the very slopes. 

 But the reverse of the medal is, that there is not a blade 

 of grass ; all the water they use is distilled sea water 

 which they carry about sixty miles inland on carts to 

 supply some of the mines. This is of course a fearful 

 drawback to all work and when they have to feed large 

 troops of mules, as some of the mines do, it becomes a 

 most expensive luxury. 



I made with Mr. Schjolberg an expedition of five 

 days to see the principal mines, and we went a little out 

 of the way to cut across a small spur of the great At- 

 acama Desert; the ride through the Desert was one of 

 the most interesting trips I have ever made, and I learned 

 a great deal of geology and of the agency of various 

 forces of which few people have any idea. You must 

 have been in this country to see what a powerful agent 

 heat is and wind in modifying the landscape of a coun- 

 try and in producing effects which in the northern 

 hemisphere are due to frost, heat, and cold and hot 

 water. But the bleakness of the scene, the utter desola- 



