70 THE ANDES OF SOUTHERN PERU 



out any immediate practical effect. By June, 1914, 12.4 miles (20 

 km.) had been opened to traffic. The total length of the proposed 

 line is 112 miles (180 km.), the gauge is to be only 2.46 feet 

 (75 cm.), 1 and the proposed cost several millions of dollars. The 

 financial problem may be solved either by a diversion of local 

 revenues, derived from taxes on coca and alcohol, or by borrowed 

 foreign capital guaranteed by local revenues. 



A shrubby vegetation is scattered along the valley from the 

 village of Urubamba, 12,000 feet (3,658 m.) above sea level, to the 

 Canyon of Torontoy. It is local and of little value. Trees appear 

 at Ollantaytambo, 11,000 feet (3,353 m.), and here too are more 

 extensive wheat and maize fields besides throngs of cacti and 

 great patches of wild geraniums. On our valley journey we 

 camped in pleasant fields flanked by steep hills whose summits 

 each morning were tipped with snow. Enormous alluvial fans 

 have partly filled up the valleys and furnished broad tracts of 

 fertile soil. The patient farmers have cleared away the stones on 

 the flatter portions and built retaining walls for the smooth fields 

 required for irrigation. In places the lower valley slopes are ter- 

 raced in the most regular manner (Fig. 38). Some of the fans are 

 too steep and stony for cultivation, exposing bare tracts which 

 wash down and cover the fields. Here and there are stone walls 

 built especially to retain the rush of mud and stones that the rains 

 bring down. Many of them were overthrown or completely 

 buried. Unless the stream channels on the fans are carefully 

 watched and effective works kept up, the labor of years may be 

 destroyed in a single slide from the head of a steep fan. 



Each group of fans has a population proportioned to its size 

 and fertility. If there are broad expanses a town like Urubamba 

 or a great hacienda like Huadquina is sure to be found. One 

 group of huge stony fans below Urubamba (Fig. 180) has only 

 a thin population, for the soil is coarse and infertile and the rivers 

 deeply intrenched. In some places the tiny fans perched high 

 upon the flanks of the mountains where little tributaries burst out 



1 Daily Cons, and Trade Report, June 10, 1914, No. 135, and Commerce Reports, 

 March 20, 1916, No. 66. 



