(iHAP. Xll. GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES. 211 



some French adventurers, of whom the most daring and 

 energetic is a M. La Harpe. The road, so far, was opened 

 by a party of soldiers of the batallion Yungay. From Ver- 

 sailles to the lavaderos or gold-washings is a distance of 

 six leagues up a narrow forest-covered ravine ; and, in this 

 distance, it is necessary to wade across the river Challuma no 

 less than fifty-three times — the water coming up to the waist, 

 the feet constantly slipping over loose rounded stones, the 

 only support a long staff, and where one false step would be 

 inevitable destruction. At the end of this perilous journey 

 there is a place called Alta-garcia, wdiere the admmistradores 

 of the company of first discoverers were established in 1850. 

 Thence to Quimza-mayu (three rivers) is half a league, and 

 here the lavaderos commence. In this part of its course the 

 river is called Taccuma. Many of the gold-seekers, such 

 as the Senores Carpio, La Harpe, Valdez, Tovar, Cardenas, 

 and Costas, have been men who were formerly engaged 

 in the chinchona-bark trade, and who know the country 

 thoroughly. The tributaries of the Challuma, called Quimza- 

 mayu, rise in hills completely isolated from the Andes, and 

 their sands are full of gold, both in dust and nuggets. 

 Immediately above the lavaderos rises a hill called Capac- 

 urco, and by the French adventurers Montebello, formed of 

 quartz and other primitive rocks, Avith rich veins of gold. 

 Here Don- Manuel Costas of Puno erected a house, and 

 brought out machinery for crushing the quartz, but the 

 undertaking failed through the badness of the machinery, 

 and the immense cost and difficulty of transporting materials 

 through such a country. A few adventurers, however, still 

 continue to wash for gold in the Challuma or Taccuma. In 

 the part of its com-se above the lavaderos this river descends 

 rapidly from an isolated range of forest-covered precipitous 

 hills, and in one place its waters plunge down in a cascade, 



p 2 



