332 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES REGIONS. 



baths," and in the vicinity is seen a grotto where, according to the national 

 leo-end, Manco Capac dwelt before he issued forth to give laws to the Quichua 

 world. On the little island of Coati, or the Moon, close to the east side of 

 the Sun, stands the Palace of the Vestals, best preserved of all Aymara 

 monuments. 



Corocoro, which lies in a deejD gorge of a little eastern affluent of the Desagua- 

 dero, dominated by bare rocks, owes its prosperity to the deposits of native copper 

 contained in the neighbouring mountains. The metal occurs either in granulated 

 form disseminated in the rock, or in crystals, cakes or nodules, and numerous 

 veins are also argentiferous. The raining operations are carried on by means of 

 galleries terminating in lateral pits communicating with tramways. The ores 

 are extremely rich, but at this great altitude above arborescent vegetation the 

 only available fuel is the resinous baccharis shrub, which yields insuificient heat 

 for smelting purposes ; hence the ores are simply crushed and levigated to get rid 

 of all impurities. The powder obtained by this grinding process is exported to 

 Europe under the name of harrilla. 



Due west of the mines is the village of Calacoto, riverine port of Corocoro on 

 the Desaguadero, which is here spanned by a reed bridge occasionally swept 

 away by the floods. Formerly Calacoto, which stands above the Maure affluent, 

 was passed by the most important route in Bolivia, the great commercial highway 

 connecting the elevated plateaux with the Pacific seaport of Arica over the 

 Tacora pass and by the city of Tacna. But the stream of traffic along this route 

 has been partly displaced by the new railway running from Arequipa to Puno on 

 Lake Titicaca. The road from La Paz to Tacna passes higher up by Nazacara, 

 where is the terminus of the steamers descending the Desaguadero from the lake. 



OrUKO HUANCHACA. 



Oniro, formerly San Felipe de Austria, stands at an elevation of about 11,700 

 feet on the saline plain stretching from the Desaguadero eastwards in the direction 

 of the slopes of the Cordillera Real. Next to Potosi this was at one time the 

 laro-est city in Bolivia, and in the seventeenth century was said to have a popula- 

 tion of 76,000, ten times more than at present ; in 1891 it was cliosen as the 

 temporary capital of the republic. Its wealth is derived from its now mostly 

 abandoned silver-mines ; but operations are still carried on at the tin-mines in 

 the north near SepuUuras, so named from its ancient tombs, and in the south, 

 near Sorasora and Poopo. These tin deposits, which occur at the point of 

 contact of the porphyries with the schistose clays, formerly yielded from 1,000 to 

 1,500 tons annually, and the output has been increased since the Huanchaca 

 railway has been carried northwards as far as Oruro. Here begins the difficult 

 track, which climbs the slopes north-westwards to the Tluaillas Pass leading down 

 to Cochabamba. 



Huanchaca was till recently a mere cluster of cabins passed by the few 

 travellers between Potosi and the port of Iquique at an altitude of 13,460 feet. 



