342 SOUTH AMEEICA— THE ANDES REGIONS. 



Steamers call regularly at these Upper Amazons ports, and the dealers who 

 have settled in the district, for the most part Brazilians or Portuguese, collect 

 all the local produce — rubber, tobacco, fish, sarsaparilla, wax, Moyobamba hats — 

 which is brought down by the Indian boatmen by the Napo, Pastaza, Maranon, 

 Ucayali and other Amazonian headwaters. 



SaNDIA PUNO YUNGUYO. 



Sandia, beyond the snowy Carabaya range towards the Brazilian frontier, lies 

 in one of the most auriferous districts of the New World. Prospectors have 

 estimated at many millions the quantity of the precious metal contained in the 

 alluvia of its running waters, which flow north-east through the Manu (Madre 

 de Dios) to the Beni afiluent of the Madeira. But the absence of roads, or 

 even tracks, through the surrounding forests prevents the exploitation of these 

 treasures. It was in the Carabaya woodlands that Clements Markham discovered 

 the cinchona- plant in 1860, which was afterwards successfully acclimatised on the 

 uplands of Southern India. 



Although lying on the west slope of the range, Cruccro has been chosen as 

 the capital of the province of Carabaya. It stands at an altitude of 12,970 feet, on 

 a torrent which flows southwards in the direction of Lake Titicaca. In the same 

 valley, but much nearer to the lake, is situated the more important town of 

 Azangaro. Here are some ancient ruins, including a round tower which till 

 recently was covered with an old Peruvian roof of reeds and short thatch, the 

 only one of the kind still in existence at the time of its destruction. According 

 to all the local traditions, Azangaro was the place where the Quichuas buried the 

 heaps of gold, valued at nearly £1,000,000, which they were bringing to Pizarro 

 for the ransom of Atahuallpa. 



By its junction with the Pucara the Azangaro river forms the Ramiz, chief 

 affluent of Lake Titicaca. The Pucara, descending from the Vilcanota Knot, is 

 skirted by the railway running from Arequipa towards Cuzco, and crossing the 

 Cordillera at the Paya Pass (13,090 feet) near Sanfa Rosa. Pucara (" The 

 Fortress "), the most flourishing place in the valley, stands at the foot of a reddish 

 sandstone cliff 1,316 feet high, pierced with clefts and cavities, around which 

 hover clouds of birds. 



Below Pucara the railway still follows the river valley as far as Nicasio, 

 beyond which, trending southwards, it turns the northern extremity of Lake 

 Titicaca, passing by Lampn to reach Juliaca, near an inlet of the lake, 12,670 

 feet above sea-level. Juliaca, the frontier town towards Bolivia, cannot fail to 

 acquire great importance as the central station of lines branching off in one 

 direction towards Cuzco, in another through Puno towards La Paz. 



In the seventeenth century the Puno mines were amongst the most productive 

 in the New World ; but the owner of one of the lodes having acquired 

 enormous wealth, the greed of the impecunious viceroy was excited. The 

 " millionaire " was accused of treason, condemned and executed, and the very day 



