THE PUNA OF PERU. 



481 



the Despoblado, or " Uninhabited." It extends through a great part of the length 

 of Peru and Bolivia, at a hight of from ten to fourteen thousand feet above the level 

 of the sea. "It is," says Squier, "that cold and rugged region which forms the 

 broad summit of the Cordillera. It has the aspect of an irregular plain, and is diver- 



THK PUNA OF PERU. 



sified with mountain ridges and snowy volcanic peaks, imposing in their proportions, 

 notwithstanding that they rise from a level of 14,000 feet above the sea." Squier, in 

 a few graphic sentences, describes the varying aspects of nature as one climbs up the 

 ascent of the Puna: " Pacla is a poor but picturesque little village, with a small, white 

 church gleaming out against the dull brown of the bare mountain side. It is 9,700 

 feet above the sea. There were some scant fields of maize and lucern around it, and 

 the lower slopes of the mountains were thinly sprinkled with stems of the columnar 

 cactus." Still ascending, "our mules began to pant under the influence of the 

 soroche or rarification of the air, but which the drivers insisted was from the veta, or 

 influence due to the vetas or veins of metal in the earth. At La Portada, 12,600 feet 

 above the level of the sea, and 1,000 feet higher than the Hospice of the Grand St. 

 Bernard, I witnessed a scene more wild and desolate than I have beheld in crossing 

 the Alps by the routes of the Simplon, the Grand St. Bernard, or the St. Gothard. 

 There is neither tree nor shrub ; the frosty soil cherishes no grass, and the very lichens 

 find scant hold on the bare rocks. The aguardiente, or native rum, which I had pur- 

 chased for making a fire for preparing my coffee, refused to burn, and extinguished 

 the lighted match thrust into it, as if it were water. I was obliged to abstract some 



