452 The Andes and the Amazons. 



tor, unless the Rosario and Cordova Railroad be a rival. 

 It is the most lofty and most serpentine railway in opera- 

 tion any where, and no other road in the world can show 

 so much heavy work done. On the first division, 7,000,000 

 cubic yards were removed. The deepest cut is 90 feet; 

 the highest fill, 112 feet; powder used, 27,000 quintals. 

 On the second division the total amount of excavation 

 was 9,858,000 cubic yards, the deepest cut being 127 feet 

 (260,000 yards) ; the highest fill, 141 feet ; powder used, 

 15,500 quintals. There is but one short tunnel in the 325 

 miles, although the first survey of the Arequipa division 

 alone demanded nineteen ; and there are only four bridges, 

 all American, the longest being 1690 feet. The engines 

 on the Arequipa division have eighteen-inch cylinders; on 

 the Puno, seventeen-inch. They consume one ton of coal 

 (costing $30) every thirty-four miles, and the shoes of the 

 brakes are replaced for every round trip. The maximum 

 grade is four per cent., and the maximum freight is sixty 

 tons. The road crosses the high Andes at an altitude of 

 14,660 feet, 116 miles east of Arequipa, where there is a 

 cut of only 6.07 feet. When the track was laid beyond 

 this summit, in 1873, it was the first time in history that 

 a locomotive crossed the Andes, The Oroya Railroad ex- 

 cels in difiiculty of work ; this, in amount of excavation, 

 as also, perhaps, in the sufferings of the men, arising from 

 want of food and fuel, and the prevalence of rain, snow, 

 cold, and rarefied air. On both, there was trouble in cook- 

 ing certain articles of food, as beans, for example ; for the 

 water boiled before it was fairly hot, so that the men were 

 obliged to use closed cans to cook under pressure. But 

 there is this gain with the locomotives : the steam is gen- 

 erated and acts more freely at high altitudes, and less fuel 

 is needed. A telegraph line follows the railroad. 



To supply Mollendo with water, a pipe has just been 



