324 IN THE WILDS OF SOUTH AMERICA 



arriero's house in a village called Uaiculi. There, as at 

 Tarata, scores of yellow finches lived about the houses; 

 they were fully as plentiful as English sparrows are in the 

 United States, and acted not unlike them. The soil in this 

 entire region is so arid and rocky that even cacti grow in 

 limited numbers only. There are no streams, so water of 

 a poor quality is obtained from deep wells. Nevertheless 

 the whole country is thickly settled. The Indians are 

 adepts at conserving the scanty water-supply, and at irri- 

 gating. They grow fruit and also cultivate small, isolated 

 fields of grain, but the greater part of their subsistence is 

 derived from the flocks of sheep and goats that seem to 

 thrive in the desert-like country. 



The climate is very cold and during the winter months 

 there is a high wind. We could see funnel-shaped masses 

 of dust moving across the plain all day long; occasionally a 

 dozen or more, resembling small cyclones, were visible at 

 the same time. 



After leaving Uaiculi the way lay along the edge of the 

 barren plain for some miles. A ridge of high peaks, some 

 of them covered with snow, rises on each side. Then the 

 trail ascended the slope to the east, rising gradually in a 

 series of terraces, four to six hundred feet high. Sometimes 

 low hills flanked the trail, and often we passed along the 

 top of flat plateaus. 



The slopes of the highest peaks were littered with fields 

 of broken sandstone that resembled a quarry-dump for 

 shattered rocks of large size; groves of gnarled trees, not 

 over twenty-five feet high, grew in these rock-strewn areas, 

 and we found them nowhere else. Where there were no 

 rocks thick clumps of tall grass stood. When we reached 

 the elevation of thirteen thousand four hundred and fifty 

 feet we found a very peculiar plant belonging to the bro- 

 melias (Puya) ; the smooth, trunk-like stem was about eigh- 

 teen inches through; this served as a pedestal for the dense 

 clump of slender, bayonet-like leaves; a tall spike of small 

 yellow flowers rose from the centre of the plant. Numbers 



