HIGH TABLE-LANDS OF PKRU, 



CHAPTER III. 



THE PUNA, OR THE HIGH TABLE-LANDS OF PERU AND BOLIVIA. 



Striking Contrast with the Llanos — Northern Character of their Climate — 

 The Chuiiu — The Surunipe — The Veta : its Influence npon Man, Horses, 

 Mules, and Cats — The Vegetation of the Puna — The Maca — The Llama : 

 its invaluable Services — The Huanacu — The Alpaca — The Vicunas : Mode 

 of Hunting Them — The ChacU— The Bolas — The Chinchilla — The Condor 

 Wild Bulls and Wild Dogs— Lovely Mountain Valleys. 



BETWEEN the two mighty parallel mountain chains of the 

 Cordillera and the Andes,* the giant bulwarks of Western 

 South America, we find, extending throughout the whole length 

 of Peru and Bolivia, at a height of from ten to fourteen thousand 

 feet above the level of the sea, vast plateaus, or table-lands, 

 which are named, in the language of the country, the Puna, or 

 ' the Uninhabited.' They present a striking contrast to the 

 Llanos of Venezuela ; for though situated, like these sultry 

 plains, within the torrid zone, their great elevation paralyses 

 the effects of a vertical sun, and transfers the rigours of the 

 north to the very centre of the tropical world. 



* Though frequently confounded, even by the Peruvian Creoles, the western 

 chain, running parallel with the coast of the Pacific, is properly the Cordillera 

 while the eastern chain, which generally runs in the same direction as the former, 

 has always been named the Andes by the Indian natives. 



