220 SANDIA. Chap. XIll. 



in two places glittering cascades foam down from their very 

 summits, into the bushes on a level with the town. 



The descent from the summit of the pass over the Cara- 

 vayan Andes to Sandia is very considerable, nearly 7000 feet 

 in thirty miles, from an arctic to a sub-tropical climate. The 

 height of Crucero is 12,980 feet ; of the pass 13,600 ; of Cuyo- 

 cuyo 10,510 ; and of Sandia 6930 feet above the sea.^ 



Tlie four mountains closely hemming in the village of 

 Sandia are mount Chicanaco, which is beautified by a splen- 

 did cascade ; mount Vianaco, which ends in two fine wooded 

 peaks, between which a long slender thread of water descends 

 into the foliage midway ; mount Camparacani, on the other 

 side of the river, which rises up to a stupendous height, 

 ending in a jagged rocky peak ; and mount Catasuyu, which 

 completes the circle, rising abruptly above the church. The 

 name of Sandia is probably a corruption of the Spanish word 

 sandilla, the first settlers having mistaken the quantities of 

 gourds which grow here iox sandillas or water-melons. 



When I arrived in Sandia the governor was absent on his 

 estate ; the cura, my good friend Dr. Guaycochea, was getting 

 in his maize-harvest on his laud near Cuzco ; and the ]3rui- 

 cipal remaining inhabitants were the Juez de Paz, Don 

 Francisco Farfan, and one Don Manuel Mena, who was drunk 

 in bed when I arrived, but who afterwards received me very 

 hospitably. These good people are, in manners and educa- 

 tion, the roughest backwoodsmen, much too fond of aguar- 

 diente, and addicted to chewing coca to excess ; but they 

 are warm-hearted and neighbourly, while they display some 

 energy in working the coffee and coca estates in the distant 

 montana, and in making roads, such as they are, from these 

 estates to Sandia. The richer people of Sandia all have 

 more or less of Indian blood, and their wives and daughters 



Observittioiiis Ijy Negretti aud Zambia'« boiliiig-poiut tlici'inometer. 



