TOPOGEAPHY OF PERU. 335 



Cerro de Pasco (14,280 feet) occupies one of the highest points of the irregular 

 mass where have their rise the Maranon and the Huallaga in the north, and in 

 the south the streams flowing through the Apurimac to the Ucayali. But for some 

 powerful attraction a place situated in an extremely rugged district, at an altitude 

 high above arborescent vegetation, and, despite its proximity to the equator, in 

 an excessively rigorous climate, could never have invited any settlers beyond 

 perhaps a few solitary pastors. But in 1630 one of these rare visitors found some 

 silver ingots in his hearth, and there was a sudden rush to the spot. The town 

 sprang up as by enchantment, though its population has ever been of a fluctuating 

 character, increasing or falling ofl" according to the output of the mines or the 

 market price of the precious metal. 



The silver lode discovered by the shepherd Iluari Capcha, who was rewarded 

 by his master with perpetual imprisonment, is still well known and even worked. 

 But besides the Descubridora, as it is called, there are over 2,000 other veins 

 crossing each other in various directions above the town, and forming a vast 

 network connected with two main lodes. Hundreds of galleries have been filled 

 up by the debris, while others, still open but abandoned, develop a vast labj^rinth 

 where the explorers at times get lost. In the Matagenfe mine as many as Î300 

 Indians were on one occasion buried alive. 



In the course of 250 years the Pasco mines, the most productive in Peru, 

 have yielded a quantity of silver valued at nearly £80,000,000, and the yearly 

 output, although much diminished, still averages £400,000. The yield might be 

 vastly increased were the mines properly drained by tunnelling under all the 

 galleries and carrying ofl' the water to the Lake of Junin. The Pasco uplands also 

 contain gold and copper, as well as coal-beds. 



Oroya — Tarma. 



Formerly the communications were extremely difficult, and the most frequented 

 route crossed the cordillera by the Lachagual Pass at an altitude of 15,620 feet, 

 nearly the height of Mont Blanc. At present the place is reached by the Lima- 

 Oroya railway, which follows a still more elevated pass. The section between 

 Oroya and Cerro de Pasco is not yet finished (1894), but here the incline is gradual 

 across the plateau. 



0)'o//a (" Liana Bridge ") takes its name from a frail suspension-bridge of 

 trailing plants 130 feet long swung across the Rio Jauja at this point, 12,178 feet 

 above sea-level. Since the completion of the railway it has become a health resort for 

 the capital, and an important Government station, with engineering and artillery 

 schools, besides other large public establishments. Oroya is destined to become 

 the central station of the Andes railway system, forming the junction of two lines, 

 one running south-east through the Jauja or Mantaro valley, the other by Cacas 

 and the plain of Junin northwards to Cerro de Pasco and the Amazonian slope. 

 It was on the plain of Junin that Bolivar gained the famous battle which put an 

 end to Spanish rule in Peruvian territory in 1824. 



