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RACCHE OR RACCHIPATA 



Photograph by Hiram Bingham 

 VIEW EROM ANOTHER OE THE SPRINGS 



The 



ruins of the Peruvian highlands from the temples to the terraced mountains proclaim a 

 race the destruction of whose annals was a calamity to mankind 



to the local land-owners. We had heard 

 rumors that there was a trail by which 

 Indians sometimes came to the ranch of 

 Hnadquiha from the village of Pucyura, 

 without going around through the Yilca- 

 bamba and Urubamba valleys. 



So it was determined to make a circuit 

 from Ollantaytambo, going between the 

 beautiful snow peaks of Salcantay and 

 Soray to the unexplored country lying 

 between Yanama, Anna, and Pucyura, 

 returning by way of the trail to Huad- 

 quina, if it could be found. 



Below Yanama we camped on a ridge 

 near some small ruins. From here we 

 made our way to Anna as best we could 

 without guides, following trails that 

 sometimes led nowhere and that at other 

 times led deep into dense jungles and 

 across mountain torrents. 



On this trip I observed near Anna a 

 forest located on the slopes of Mt. Soi- 

 roccocha, between 15.000 and 16,000 feet 

 above sea-level — so far as we know, the 

 higrhest forest in the world. 



Near Pucyura, in the Vilcabamba Val- 

 ley, on the hill called Rosaspata, or "Hill 

 of Roses," where, in 191 1, we discovered 

 the ruins of Vitcos, the last Inca capital 

 (see pages 511-520 of the April, 1913, 

 National Geographic Magazine), we 

 found encamped Messrs. Erdis, Has- 

 brouck, and Dr. Ford, of our expedition. 

 They had uncovered an extraordinary 

 amount of modern material, including 

 horseshoe nails, scissors, Spanish brass 

 saddlery decorations, and even jew's- 

 harps, showing that the group of build- 

 ings back of the Palace of Vitcos was 

 undoubtedly occupied by Spaniards in the 

 colonial period. 



Inquiry among the natives of the valley 

 finally resulted in our securing the serv- 

 ices of an Indian guide who said he 

 knew the trail across the unexplored area 

 to Huadquiha in the direction of Machu 

 Picchu. 



Our route lay up the Colpa Valley, 

 which I had explored a few days before, 

 passing by an abandoned quartz-crushing 



45" 



