S44 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



districts. On the uplands, all strangers, and even the natives, suffer, either 

 directly or indirectly, from the soroche, caused by the rarefaction of the air, 

 and assuming different forms in different localities. The mining districts rich 

 in antimony are specially dreaded, and certain domestic animals suffer even more 

 than travellers from mountain-sickness. Above 13,000 feet, dogs never survive 

 bevond a twelvemonth, while cats die in horrible convulsions a few days after 

 their arrival. 



On the other hand, some ailments contracted on the lowlands are cured in the 

 mountains. Dysentery stops almost immediately, and consumption — rare amongst 

 the upland Indians — is arrested and even disappears, provided the patients take 

 care to accustom themselves gradually to the more rarefied air of the elevated 

 regions. Thus, although Oroya may be reached from Lima in a single day, the 

 journey has to be made by at least twelve or fifteen stages. 



Agriculture. 



In former times Peruvian agriculture was certainly of far greater importance 

 than at present. The so-called andcnes, steps or terraces, now lying fallow, but 

 still girdling the mountain slopes up to the vicinity of the snow-line, and the 

 astonishing irrigation works, drawing the fertilising waters from the rocky upland 

 valleys down to the plateaux, attest both the density and the remarkable industry 

 of the old populations. In those days agriculture served only to supply the local 

 wants, and to entertain a little exchange of commodities between the lowlands 

 and the elevated regions of the Sierra. 



The produce was mainly restricted to two alimentary plants — maize in the 

 temperate lands, and higher up vhoiopodium quiiioa, the seeds of which were ground 

 to flour or boiled like rice. Various species of the potato, such as euro or papa, 

 were also cultivated, besides arracacha, ulluco (ullucus tubcrosus), and oca {era lis 

 crennta). Certain choice varieties, like the "Cuzco" maize, developed with mar- 

 vellous art, were grown only for the Inca's table. For kings and nobles was 

 also reserved the use of coca, although the leaf was occasionally distributed among 

 the common people. In recent years the cultivation of this plant has been revived 

 and extended, especially on the Amazonian slopes, and exported to Europe for the 

 preparation of cocaine. 



Wheat and barley were introduced from Spain, and bananas from the Canaries, 

 this last by the same Bishop Toraas de Berlanga to whom we owe the discovery of 

 the Galapagos archipelago. Bernabé Cobo relates that in 1543 Lima was already 

 surrounded by banana-groves, but an invasion of ants having consumed all the 

 supplies in the city, the calamity was attributed to these plantations, which were 

 consequently ordered to be rooted up under a fine of ten gold crowns. The vine 

 and olive made their appearance some years later ; but since 1551, when the first 

 bunch of grapes was gathered at Lima, viniculture has been mainly confined to the 

 southern provinces, and especially to the districts of lea and Moquegua. 



Cotton, which was grown to some extent during the American Civil War, has 



