THE BORDER VALLEYS OF THE EASTERN ANDES 69 



On the steepest spurs of the Pampaconas Valley the traveler 

 may go from snow to pasture in a half day and from pasture to 

 forest in the same time. Another day he is in the hot zone of the 

 larger valley floors, the home of the Machigangas. The steep 

 descents bring out the superimposed zones with diagrammatic 

 simplicity. The timber line is as sharply marked as the edge of a 

 cultivated field. At a point just beyond the huts of Pampaconas 

 one may stand on a grassy spur that leads directly up — a day's 

 journey — to the white summits of the Cordillera Vilcapampa. 

 Yet so near him is the edge of the forest that he is tempted to 

 try to throw a stone into it. In an hour a bitter wind from the 

 mountains may drive him to shelter or a cold fog come rolling up 

 from the moist region below. It is hard to believe that oppressive 

 heat is felt in the valley just beneath him. 



In the larger valleys the geographic contrasts are less sharp 

 and the transition from mountains to plain, though less spectacu- 

 lar, is much more complex and scientifically interesting. The for- 

 est types interfinger along the shady and the sunny slopes. The 

 climate is so varied that the forest takes on a diversified character 

 that makes it far more useful to man. The forest Indians and 

 the valley planters are in closer association. There are many 

 islands and peninsulas of plateau population on the valley floor. 

 Here the zones of climate and the belts of fertile soil have larger 

 areas and the land therefore has greater economic value. Much 

 as the valley people need easier and cheaper communication with 

 the rest of Peru it is no exaggeration to say that the valley prod- 

 ucts are needed far more by the coast and plateau peoples to 

 make the republic self-supporting. Coca, wood, sugar, fruit, are v 

 in such demand that their laborious and costly transportation 

 from the valleys to the plateau is now carried on with at least 

 some profit to the valley people. Improved transportation would 

 promote travel and friendship and supply a basis for greater 

 political unity. 



A change in these conditions is imminent. Years ago the 

 Peruvian government decreed the construction of a railway from 

 Ouzco to Santa Ana and preliminary surveys were made but with- 



