PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF ORTON AND PERU. 133 
nels in the dry barren rock of the mountains nearest the coast. There are places 
in these rocks where water has worn ten, twenty and thirty feet deep, where in 
these days it does not rain in a lifetime. Besides this, these same mountains, 
dry, barren and without soil, have a series of stone terraces for hundreds and 
even thousands of feet up their sides. These terraces must have been constructed 
thousands of years ago when there was soil upon these rocks and when the rain 
fall was sufficient to produce vegetation. It is of course plain that in this present 
climate of no rain nor frost, monuments of man’s industry endure almost without 
change for long ages. When did the rain cease and what was the cause? I will 
offer that 40,000 years ago this vast mountain chain was 10,000 feet lower than it 
now is—that then there were soil, vegetation, trees, springs and abundant rain— 
that the inhabitants during succeeding ages cut down the forests—that the soil 
was worn off by cultivation and rains—that as the country gradually rose out of 
the ocean the people built terraces lower down until now the terraces are wanting 
in soil, in rain, in vegetation, and abandoned by man. 
Ruins of a very ancient civilization, probably much older than the Inca 
monarchy, abound all over Peru.—ruins of temples, roads, walls, acqueducts, 
foundations of extensive cities and hundreds of square miles of cemeteries. 
Near Pacasmayo, Trujillo and Lima, there are ruins of temples of adobe still 
eighty feet high and covering acres of ground, which from their very size and 
massiveness have defied the vandalic hand of the conqueror. There seems to 
have been various methods of burial, perhaps indicating the customs of different 
ages —some dead were buried in structures of adobe, others in the level lands of 
the plains without wrappings or casings, and others were carefully wrapped and 
embalmed. Inthe mouth of the dead is often found a peice of copper, and 
buried with them bits of gold and silver, and vessels of pottery of infinite variety 
of shape and design. The vessels probably contained some sacred liquid. Rel- 
ic hunters have exposed and scattered many miles of human bones. 
Our route to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, was eastward from Mollendo 
latitude 17° south. Hereis one of Mr. Meigg’s ‘‘railroads in the clouds.” Mollen- 
do to Areguipa 107 miles; fare $8.00; daily trains. The track runs along the 
ocean beach nine miles with the salt spray of the surf dashing against the morn- 
ing train, and then begins its wonderful zig-zag course up the ravines and around 
the mountain spurs from whence are magnificent views of the ocean, of the sugar 
cane and alfaifa fields in the Tambo valley and of the many windings of the rail- 
road track over which we’ve passed. 
From Cachendo across the desert pampa of Islay—desert only from want of 
water—the snow-clad mountains of Pichupichu, Chachani and Misti, impress one 
by their massiveness and cold grandeur. At the stations of La Joya and Vitor, 
oranges, pears, grapes, watermelons and generous baskets of most delicious fresh 
figs were offered for sale. Here end tropical fruits. From Uchumayu, 7,000 
feet elevation, there is laid at a contract price of $3,000,000, a seven inch iron 
pipe, eighty-four miles to Mollendo, giving water to all the stations, and from this 
