142 THE ANDES OF SOUTHERN PERU 



weather and to Providence), he replied, as he pointed significantly 

 to the pretty green hills crowned with gray mist. 



It, therefore, seems fortunate that the Coast Range is so placed 

 as to intercept and concentrate a part of the moisture that the sea- 

 winds carry, and doubly fortunate that its location is but a few 

 miles from the coast, thereby giving temporary relief to the rela- 

 tively crowded people of the lower irrigated valleys and the towns. 

 The wet years formerly developed a crop of prospectors. Pack 

 animals are cheaper when there is good pasture and they are also 

 easier to maintain. So when the rains came the hopeful pick-and- 

 shovel amateurs began to emigrate from the towns to search for 

 ore among the discolored bands of rock intruded into the granite 

 masses of the coastal hills. However, the most likely spots have 

 been so thoroughly and so unsuccessfully prospected for many 

 years that there is no longer any interest in the "mines." 



Transportation rates are still most intimately related to the 

 rains. My guide had two prices — a high price if I proposed to 

 enter a town at night and thus require him to buy expensive 

 forage ; a low price if I camped in the hills and reached the town 

 in time for him to return to the hills with his animals. Inquiry 

 showed that this was the regular custom. I also learned that in 

 packing goods from one part of the coast to another forage must 

 be carried in dry years or the beasts required to do without. 

 In wet years by a very slight detour the packer has his beasts in 

 good pasture that is free for all. The merchant who dispatches 

 the goods may find his charges nearly doubled in extremely dry 

 years. Goods are more expensive and there is a decreased con- 

 sumption. The effects of the rains are thus transmitted from one 

 to another, until at last nearly all the members of a community 

 are bearing a share of the burdens imposed by drought. As al- 

 ways there are a few who prosper in spite of the ill wind. If the 

 pastures fail, live stock must be sold and the dealers ship south 

 to the nitrate ports or north to the large coast towns of Peru, 

 where there is always a demand. Their business is most active 

 when it is dry or rather at the beginning of the dry period. Also 

 if transport by land routes becomes too expensive the small trad- 



