66 THE ANDES OF SOUTHERN PERU 



portant of all, the flat valley floors have the best pasture in the 

 whole mountain region. There is plenty of water. There is seclu- 

 sion, and, if a fence be built from one valley wall to another as can 

 be done with little labor, an entire section of the valley may be 

 inclosed. A village like Choquetira, located on a bench on the val- 

 ley side, commands an extensive view up and down the valley — an 

 important feature in a grazing village where the corrals cannot 

 always be built near the houses of the owners. Long, finger-like 

 belts of highland-shepherd population have thus been extended 

 into the mountain valleys. Sheep and llamas drift right up to 

 the snowline. 



There is, however, a marked difference between the people on 

 opposite sides of the Cordillera Vilcapampa. On the west the moun- 

 tains are bordered by a broad highland devoted to grazing. On 

 the east there is a narrower grazing belt leading abruptly down 

 to tropical valleys. The eastern or leeward side is also the 

 warmer and wetter side of the Cordillera. The snowline is sev- 

 eral hundred feet lower on the east. The result is that patches of 

 scrub and even a little woodland occur almost at the snowline in 

 favored places. Mist and storms are more frequent. The grass 

 is longer and fresher. Vegetation in general is more abundant. 

 The people make less of wool than of cattle, horses, and mules. 

 Vilcabamba pueblo is famous for its horses, wiry, long-haired lit- 

 tle beasts, as hardy as Shetland ponies. We found cattle grazing 

 only five hundred feet below the limit of perpetual snow. There 

 are cultivated spots only a little farther down, and only a thou- 

 sand feet below the snow are abandoned terraces. At the same 

 elevation are twisted quenigo trees, at least two hundred years 

 old, as shown by their rings of growth. Thus the limits of agricul- 

 ture are higher on the east; likewise' the limits of cattle grazing 

 that naturally goes with agriculture. Sheep would thrive, but 

 llamas do better in drier country, and the shepherd must needs 

 mix his flocks, for the wool which is his chief product requires 

 transportation and only the cheap and acclimated llama is at the 

 shepherd's disposal. From these facts it will be seen that the 

 anthropo-geographic contrasts between the eastern and western 



