THE MONGOLIAN RACE. 



21 



moreover perpetually invested the projecting peaks. The moist and 

 chilly climate reminded us of Terra del Fuego ; and as in that region, 

 wild geese were feedino^ on the close-set herbage. During the three 

 nights we passed at Casa Cancha, most of our party suffered from 

 the ' puna;' an affection accompanied with headache, fever, and vomit- 

 ing, in some respects analogous to sea-sickness, as it is apt to accom- 

 pany a first introduction to these heights. 



While ascending on foot to the mine of Alpamarca, we remarked 

 the frequent necessity of resting, for the sake of taking breath. The 

 cause did not seem difficult of explanation. For, at the elevation of 

 fifteen thousand feet, the atmosphere had lost one half of its density, 

 so that we were obliged to double the number of our inspirations, to 

 procure our accustomed supply of air. The English superintendent 

 stated, that " a residence of years does not relieve this shortness of 

 breath, and inability of long-continued muscular exertion, and that the 

 aboriginals born on the spot suffer equally with strangers." I have, 

 however, been assured by Mr. Quimby, who has travelled much 

 among the Andes, that a " perceptible tendency to enlargement of 

 the chest, has been remarked among the people of the mining dis- 

 tricts." 



Coca, (which consists of the leaves of the Erythroxylon mixed with 

 lime,) formed the resource and consolation of the miners of Alpamarca; 

 and its use, in preference to tobacco, had extended to European resi- 

 dents. I was here first struck with the superior powers of endurance 

 of the aboriginal American; an important item, as it has appeared to 

 me, in the profitable working of the South American mines. I did 

 not learn the precise footing on which the aboriginals are employed 

 in Peru, but I was assured that " they are very rarely slaves." 



I visited also several abandoned Inca villages in the vicinity of 

 Lima; together with Pachicamac, which appears to have been the 

 aboriginal capital of the district. The cemetery at this place deserves 

 attention, as the climate is favourable to the preservation of relics; 

 and as it does not seem probable that bodies have been placed here 

 subsequently to the Spanish conquest, or the conversion. I remarked 

 among the articles exhumed, a small roundish gourd-shell having a 

 square opening, precisely as it is now seen in the Lima market. Also 

 a short-eared black variety of maize, which is still common; and 

 another variety having the grains sliglitly pointed. The Pachija hean ; 

 and a free-seeded variety of tlie cotton-pla7it. Fragments of woven 



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