PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF ORTON AND PERU. 135 
The merchants buy from the surrounding country, sheep and alpaca wool, hides 
and gold dust. Puno is the centre of a rich mineral region. Near by are the sil- 
ver mines of Maravillas, Santa Lucia, Manta, and the oil wells of Pusi. There are 
no trees nor wood for fuel within two hundred miles. Bosta—dried excrement of 
the alpaca and Ilama—supplies the place of wood and coal. Agriculture produces 
potatoes, onions, quinua (mountain rice), oca and papaliz, (similar to the pota- 
toe), and barley. Upon the lake there are two elegant iron screw steamers, the 
Yapura and Yavar—fuel bosta. Fare to Chililaya, a Bolivian port, $16.40; 
ninety-six miles. 
It is said that the great Andes have, at three different epochs, been sub- 
merged beneath the ocean wave; that since the conques’ in 1533, the rise has 
been eighty feet. Lake Titicaca, now shrunken to a trifle less than Lake Onta- 
rio, has been carried up to the enormous altitude of 12,548 feet. Ages 
ago it covered about seven times its present area. A great number of clear 
mountain streams from every side add to it volumes of fresh water, while the 
river Desaguadero empties its surplus waters into the salt marshes of Lake Aullaga. 
There is no other outlet. The cakes of salt from the dry beds of this lake sup- 
ply all Bolivia. The waters of the great take are somewhat brackish near the 
shore, but away from land are remarkably clear, sweet and pure. Water birds 
and fish are abundant. 
Chililaya to La Paz, fifteen leagues by a Concord coach, drawn by six mules. 
All day long we enjoyed glorious views of the snow-covered peaks Ilampu, Sora- 
ta, Huainapotosi, Illimani. The road passes through a well peopled country, and 
well cultivated fields, gradually rising out out of the Titicaca basin toward the 
base of the szow-filed central Cordillera of the Andes, until suddenly we gazed 
down upon the red tiled roofs, paved streets, and lovely gardens of the city of 
‘La Paz, 1500 feet below. We could hear the busy hum of industry and the 
striking of the city clocks. 
La Paz contains a population of 80,000, and is 12,000 feet above the ocean. 
There are two daily newspapers. Her merchants trade in wool, Peruvian bark, 
coffee, and do business with the gold mines of Tipuhuani and Carabaya, the 
silver mines of Oruro and Potosi, and with the agricultural districts of interior 
valleys. 
March 27, 1877, we set out on mules from La Paz for Cochabamba, 84 
leagues, by way of Oruro, stopping each night at government tambos. Each 
morning we found the roofs and surroundings white with frost. These tambos 
afford free shelter for man and beast. All travelers carry their own bedding, 
and buy food and forage when needed. No wagon has ever passed, except on 
_ pack-mules, to La Paz nor to Cochabamba. We met numerous trains of mules 
and thousands of llamas loaded with flour and metals. In this route we crossed 
the second Cordillera. 
Cochabamba, latitude 1734° south, is a city of forty thousand inhabitants, in 
the midst of a valley of wondrous fertility; too elevated for any of the tropical 
