THE ALTOS OF THE PUNA 35 



Situated at a height where the enervating power of the tro- 

 pical sun is not felt, and where at the same time the air is not 

 too rarefied, these pleasant mountain vales, protected by their 

 rocky walls against the gusts of the Puna, enjoy all the ad- 

 vantages of a mild and genial sky. Here the astonished Eu- 

 ropean sees himself surrounded by the rich corn-fields, the 

 green lucerne meadows, and the well-known fruit trees of his 

 distant home, so that he might almost fancy that some friendly 

 enchanter had transported him to his native country, if the 

 cactuses and the agaves on the mountain-slopes by day, and the 

 constellations of another hemisphere by night, did not remind 

 him of the vast distance which separates him from the land 

 of his birth. 



There are* regions in this remarkable country where the 

 traveller may in the morning leave the snow-decked Puna hut, 

 and before sunset pluck pine-apples and bananas on the cul- 

 tivated margin of the primeval forest ; where in the morning the 

 stunted grasses and arid lichens of the naked plain remind him 

 of the arctic regions, and where he may repose at night under 

 the fronds of gigantic palms. 



D 2 



