420 The Andes and the Amazons, 



hills, where the rough, diorite rocks are piled on end as if 

 the Druids had been there. Here begin the wonders of en- 

 gineering. For ten consecutive miles there are the great- 

 est cuts and fills in the world, each averaging 100,000 cubic 

 yards. In less than half a mile, half a million have been 

 excavated. The highest fill is 141 feet, and the deepest cut 

 127. The excavation on the whole of this division amounts 

 to nearly ten millions of cubic yards. And much of this was 

 done at an altitude 3000 feet higher than Mount Washington. 



But up we went, or rather I, for I was the only passen- 

 ger, threading the airy defiles of the Cordilleras; and, in 

 the graceful language of Prescott, " the mountains rolled 

 onward as by successive waves to join the colossal barrier 

 of the Andes." " Bless me, this is pleasant," Saxe would 

 say, riding on a level with the clouds and eternal snow. 

 It is literally a highway. Ci-ossing the dreary Pampa de 

 Arrieros at the altitude of 13,000 feet, we reached Yinca- 

 raayo (100 miles from Arequipa), the only village of impor- 

 tance on the whole line, and the highest in the world. It 

 is a pure creation of the railway, consisting of an "Amer- 

 ican Hotel," engine-houses, machine-shops, coal-yards, etc. 

 Every thing about this village was imported from beyond 

 the sea. At this chilly altitude (14,443 feet), within sight 

 of the white domes of Misti, Chichani, and the active vol- 

 cano of Urvinas, which looked like huge snow-drifts on the 

 horizon, I tried to sleep ; but such was the rarefaction of 

 the air, I spent the night in panting for breath. 



Early next morning the train moved on to the summit 

 of the road, Alto del Crucero, a bog with rounded hills 

 sprinkled with snow, 14,660 feet above the Pacific. It is 

 a drear and desolate, cold and silent region — so silent, the 

 buzzing of an insect would have been painful. Nature 

 seems asleep. The ground is thinly covered with short 

 grass, with here and there clumps of needle -like ichu. 



