98 NATURE 
by the present writer in 1909, were reached from the 
north side by Messrs. Heald, Eaton, and Nelson, of 
the expedition. A few boxes of bones and potsherds 
were collected. This party had great difficulty in carry- 
ing out its undertaking owing to the fact that no guides 
could be procured, and the way lay through a very 
Fic. 3.—Machu Picchu. 
rough country, where scarcity of water and a plague 
of flies were added to the many other difficulties. 
Interesting but not highly important ruins were dis- 
covered by the writer near Palcay, in the Aobamba 
Valley, in the vicinity of an impressive group of 
glaciers hitherto unmapped and not 
reported. An interesting feature of 
one of the groups of ruins in this 
valley is that it appears to be 
exactly. oriented; its’ two cross 
streets seem to run on the true, not 
on the magnetic, cardinal points. 
The topographic cross section of 
the Andes along the 73rd meridian, 
begun by Mr. Kai Hendriksen in 
I9II, was completed in the face of 
great difficulties by Messrs. Bum- 
stead, Hardy, and Little, and will 
be published in connection with the 
report of Prof. Isaiah Bowman, the 
geographer-geologist of the 1911 
expedition. 
The most interesting, and _ in 
many ways the most satisfactory, 
results of the 1912 expedition were 
in connection with the ruins of 
Machu Picchu. In torr the present 
writer, while engaged in a search 
for Vitcos, the last Inca capital, 
discovered a number of hitherto un- 
reported groups of ruins in the 
valley of the Urubamba and _ its 
tributaries. The group known as 
near Puquiura, in Vilcabamba, is’ believed to 
be that which the chroniclers called Vitcos, 
the capital where the young Inca Manco, set up by 
Pizarro, fortified himself after his revolt against the 
NO. 2317, VOL. 93) 
Rosaspata, 
Sacred plaza and Intihuatana Hill from boulder caves. 
Fic. 4.—Machu Picchu 
caused by the settling of the east wall. 
[Marcu 26, 1914 
Spanish conquerors. But the ruins of Machu Picchu 
do not appear to have been connected with the later 
history of the Incas. These ruins are located on top 
of a ridge in the most inaccessible part of the Uru- 
bamba Cafion some 2000 ft. above the rapids, and 
some 8000 or gooo ft. above sea-level. 
Copyright Ly the National Geographic Societys 
The presence here, in a wonderfully picturesque 
position, of a remarkably large and well-preserved 
abandoned city practically untouched by the hands of 
the spoiler, and apparently unknown to the Spanish 
choniclers, led us to undertake to clear the city of its 
Chief temple, north wall, int riov, showing the cracking 
Notice the care with which the size of the stones is made 
to decrease gradually in each ascending tier. The main altar stone is rq ft. in len th. Co, yright 
by the National Geographic Society. 
Sacred plaza. 
extensive jungles and to excavate the ruins. Many 
difficulties had to be overcome, but we were eventually 
successful in locating more than one hundred burial 
caves. The excavation yielded a considerable amount 
of anthropological material, including human and 
