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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



mules. In several places bridges had to 

 be constructed. 



While the road was being opened I 

 went on ahead with two native assistants, 

 and was delighted to find that our trail 

 clearly led in the direction of Machu 

 Picchu. Pushing on in the hope of soon 

 getting a glimpse of Machu Picchu 

 Mountain, I stumbled on a group of ruins 

 called "Ccorihuayrachina." 



On the mountain side above the ruins 

 a hilltop had been leveled off and a re- 

 taining wall built, so as to make it a use- 

 ful signal station, or primitive fortress. 

 Beneath it we found a huge cave. The 

 next day, on coming around the bluff in 

 sight of this cave, imagine our surprise 

 and delight to see a black "spectacled" 

 bear browsing in the shrubbery. This 

 was the first time that any of us had ever 

 seen an adult Peruvian bear feeding in 

 the open. 



The bear was slowly working around 

 the ridge in our direction, and in the 

 hope of getting a near photograph of it 

 I slipped back out of sight and climbed 

 as fast as I could. A rapid climb at that 

 altitude (the elevation was about 12,000 

 feet) is not conducive to being able to 

 hold a camera steady when the need 

 comes. Unfortunately the bear climbed 

 faster than I did, and, getting to the top 

 of the ridge, was startled by the sight of 

 our caravan approaching. All I saw of 

 him was a momentary glimpse of two big 

 ears and a black snout not 50 feet away. 

 Before I could get the camera focused 

 the apparition disappeared, and by the 

 time I reached the top of the ridge our 

 precious visitor was safelv hidden in the 

 densely wooded hillside below the crest 

 of the ridge. 



Naturalist Heller, learning of our en- 

 counter with the spectacled bear, later 

 came into this region to hunt and secured 

 several specimens of this rare bruin. 



From Ccorihuayrachina the trail led 

 along the crest of the ridge, slowly de- 

 scending toward Machu Picchu Moun- 

 tain (see illustration, page 480), but 

 when within rifle shot of the city sud- 

 denly disappeared ; but that did not worry 

 us, for we had actually reached the im- 

 mediate neighborhood of the celebrated 

 hidden city by what was probably the an- 



cient highway that connected Machu 

 Picchu with Cuzco. In addition, we had 

 also been so fortunate as to locate a num- 

 ber of hitherto-unknown ruins that rep- 

 resent stations at convenient intervals 

 along the road. 



A PERILOUS UNDERTAKING 



As I had now other matters to attend 

 to, I requested Air. Maynard to see what 

 he could do to complete the last link of 

 the old road. 



Describing his work, he writes as fol- 

 lows : 



"We finally picked the trail up in a 

 ruined guard-house farther along the 

 ridge and followed it to a point where 

 the side hill merged into a sheer rock 

 wall. At the difficult places the Indians 

 would try in every way to discourage fur- 

 ther search, crying, 'No hay camino,' or 

 'Manan pasanchu,' meaning that 'There 

 is no road,' 'You can't pass.' 



"They worked only half-heartedly and 

 had to be repeatedly encouraged. 



"In searching for traces of the trail, 

 one of the men finally uncovered a flight 

 of stone steps buried in rotting vegetable 

 matter. These steps led to a cave, the 

 entrance to which had been concealed by 

 bushes. By carrying their road through 

 this natural tunnel, the Incas had avoided 

 building on the face of the cliff. How- 

 ever, when we attempted to follow this 

 route we found the passage choked by 

 large rocks ; the roof had caved in. The 

 only possible means of advance was by 

 swinging a short rustic bridge along the 

 face of the cliff, which seemed rather 

 dangerous and not too feasible. 



"Sending a man back to camp for a 

 rope, the rest were set to cutting poles 

 which could be used to span the gap. 

 Projecting from the face of the cliff 

 about ten feet beyond the end of the trail 

 and a few feet above it was a ledge of 

 rock. Growing out of crevices at the end 

 of this ledge, and also at the end of the 

 trail, were two small trees. They were 

 rather unsafe foundations, but they 

 formed the only means of further prog- 

 ress. Poles were laid from tree to tree. 

 One of the Indians then slid across, first 

 having a rope tied tightly about his body, 

 the other end beinsr held bv the men. 



