TRAFFIC ON MULES 47 



Indians of the cold districts of the Puna for wool and 

 salt. 



These commercial currents are of very ancient, 

 probably pre-Columbian origin. Boman has discovered 

 ears of maize in the prehistoric tombs of the Puna de 

 Atacama. 1 The Puna, at a height of 11,000 to 12,000 

 feet, is permanently inhabited, unlike the high valleys 

 of the Cordillera de San Juan, which are occupied only 

 during the summer season by Chilean shepherds. It 

 is primarily a pastoral and mining region, but it has 

 some tilled land, at more than 6,700 feet above the 

 level of the valleys. The higher limit of annual cultiva- 

 tion in the cold districts, which is fixed by the summer 

 temperature, does not fall in the same way as that of 

 arboriculture in warm districts, because trees suffer 

 from the winter frosts. The Indians of Cochinoca and 

 Susques sow lucerne and barley for fodder, and the 

 quinoa and potato for food. Transport between the 

 Puna and the valles is carried on by the inhabitants of 

 the Puna, and is not shared by the vallistas. They are 

 especially active in the north, in the province of Jujuy. 

 Belmar shows how important the sales of the Puna 

 woollen goods were by the middle of the nineteenth 

 century. 3 These fabrics were used by the mill-owners 

 of the Rio Grande de Jujuy to pay for the work of the 

 Indians of the Chaco, whom they employed in the 

 sugar-cane harvest. The competition of the manu- 

 factured products of Europe now menaces the domestic 

 weaving of the Puna, just as the competition of the 

 flour of the Pampa menaces the cultivation of cereals 

 in the valles. 



Besides this traffic of local interest the valles serve 

 for a traffic of a higher, almost a continental character. 

 It seems certain that during the pre- Spanish period 



1 Eric Boman, Antiquites de la region andine de la Ripublique Argen- 

 tine ei de la Puna de Atacama : Mission scient. G. de Crequi-Montfort 

 et E. Senechal de la Grange (Paris, vols. i. and ii. 1908). 



* Belmar, Les provinces de la Federation argentine (Paris, 1856). 



