MATERIAL CONDITION OF PERU. 343 



of liis death, saith the legend, the galleries were flooded, or else tlie entrances 

 choked by the Indians. All subsequent efforts to re-discover the rich lodes 

 have failed, although a little silver still continues to be extracted from the mines. 



In connection with the Pacific Railway, Puno maintains a number of 

 steamers on the lake, besides a whole flotilla of balsas, made entirely of reeds 

 and propelled by a reed sail. On a neighbouring island is the grave of the 

 distinguished North-American traveller, Orton. In the eighteenth century 

 Titicaca was often called the Lake of Chicuito, from a place lying farther south on 

 the west side, which, before the insurrection of Tupac Amaru, Avas a flourishing 

 town ; but it was plundered and partly destroyed during the war, and never 

 recovered from the disaster. 



On the headland of Sillustani, at the little Lake of Umuyo, near Puno, are some 

 megalithic granite circles which, of all Aymara monuments, most resemble the- 

 menhirs and other similar pre-historic remains of West Europe. Near the south- 

 west extremity of Lake Titicaca the town of Yiinguyo, formerly a holy place, 

 situated on the low Copacabana peninsula, still attracts all the surrounding; 

 populations to its market, which appears to date from pre-Inca times. 



viir. 



Material Condition of Peru. 



The population of Peru, consisting for the most part of full-blood or half-caste 

 Indians, has increased less rapidly than that of the other American republics ; 

 in some of the more remote upland districts it may even have diminished, 

 owin» to the attraction of the large towns. Nevertheless, the increase has been 

 about threefold since the War of Independence — from a little over 1,000,000 in 

 1810 to nearly 3,000,000 in 1876. The losses caused by the war with Chili 

 have already been more than repaired, and at present (1894) the populatiom 

 certainly exceeds 3,000,000, of which the civilised Quichua element, pure or 

 mixed, is in a decided majority. The uncivilised Indians were roughly estimated' 

 at 350,000 in 1876. 



It may be doubted whether the créoles, that is, the whites of pure Spanish 

 descent, have yet been completely acclimatised on the insalubrious coastlands,. 

 where the mortality of infants is still excessive. Convulsions especially are ver>r 

 fatal, as is also the " seven-days sickness," so called because it attacks infants in 

 the first week after birth, always with deadly result. Yellow fever has also 

 frequently invaded the coastlands, sparing the negroes, but proving more dangerous 

 to the Indians than to the whites. Typhus and typhoid fever prevail on the hot 

 lands, and, as in most torrid climates, intermittent agues and dysentery, often 

 complicated by liver complaints, ravage the coastlands. 



According to Tschudi, no country presents so many peculiar forms of disease- 

 as Peru; every valley has its special ailment, unknown in the neighbouring 



