THE ARABIAN RACE. 



231 



and there are probably few spots on the globe, where so many luxu- 

 ries for the table can be procured. But there is one drawback, in the 

 frequent occurrence of earthquakes; for these are events, to which the 

 human mind does not become habituated. 



The country is for the most part devoid of vegetation ; and would 

 be uninhabitable, did not streams from the Andes afford the means of 

 irrigation. In the district of Atacama, further south, the streams do 

 not reach the coast. 



At the base of the Peruvian Andes, the soil was found to be 

 clothed with vegetation ; and the inclined roofs of the buildings 

 showed the occurrence of rain. Villages soon became frequent, some 

 of them containing as many as a hundred houses; but the people 

 were in the practice of leaving home to attend to their flocks at a 

 distance ; their habits being chiefly pastoral. Their miserable style 

 of living, while surrounded by abundant means, seemed truly re- 

 markable. 



In two separate valleys, our party found the last village about 

 eleven thousand feet above the sea, and precisely at the upper limit 

 of cultivation ; which terminated with the tuberous roots of the Tro- 

 paiolum, Oxalis, Basella, and common potato. Above this elevation, 

 is the 'paramera;' a cold region, avoided by the inhabitants of the 

 lower country, but yet affording pasturage, and containing scattered 

 houses. Moisture increasing with the ascent, the reverse of the state 

 of things in Chili, the Peruvian Andes do not present a barrier to 

 population; and the dreary tract along their crest, is further enlivened 

 b}' mining stations. 



Already on the Andes, we thought we perceived a feeling of inde- 

 pendence of the seat of government ; and we were assured, that at 

 their Eastern base, in territory nominally Peruvian, one may live in 

 ease and abundance, altogether beyond the reach of the revolutions at 

 Lima. 



California, the only other Spanish-American country I have visited, 

 presented a third variation in the costume ; which was again fantastic, 

 and unlike anything European. The Californians are mounted herds- 

 men, skilled in the use of the lasso ; and they are as expert in feats of 

 horsemanship as their brethren of the far South. Great ignorance of 

 geography and of foreign countries, was found to prevail even among 

 the upper ranks, as we had remarked at Lima. 



