98 



SHORES OF TITICACA. 



The mail from Puno to Callao goes by the English steamer from 

 Yslay in eight days, leaving Puno every two weeks. The Creole portion 

 of the population is not very great, except in the army. There is a 

 college of science and art here, like that of Cuzco. We found the boys 

 practising the broad-sword exercise with single sticks. 



In the larger towns the government has established public schools. In 

 this department there are sixty-three for boys and three for girls. In 

 these schools Indian children are admitted and taught as well as the 

 Creoles. There are few African slaves in South Peru. 



The country is over populated ; I mean for the productive portions of 

 the land. There are many square miles in these departments barren and 

 unproductive, unpopulated, and utterly worthless, so far as cultivation 

 goes, though they may contain great mineral wealth. The inhabitants 

 are confined to the valleys among the mountains, which are generally 

 narrow, and crops are principally raised by irrigation. The Puna 

 country is higher, and better adapted to wool growing, but very thinly 

 peopled. There are many places so high above the level of the sea that 

 people cannot live there with any sort of comfort, nor can they gather 

 from the earth a living. The ant will die an unnatural death, placed 

 where the llama naturally lives and flourishes. The llama, again, will 

 perish with heat where the ant builds its nest. In the deep valleys 

 are the most children, the greatest amount of vegetable life, and more 

 of the animals known in different parts of the world, such as the horse, 

 horned cattle, domestic cats, dogs, bees, and humming birds. 



People have said that the population of these departments do not 

 increase in proportion to the increase in northern portions of the world, 

 and ask, why it is. People upon the Andes do not multiply if they do 

 not seek the rich lands. 



As we ride along the shores of Lake Titicaca, the Indians are seen 

 sucking the juice from the lake rush ; they also make salad of it. The 

 cattle and horses wade up to their backs in mud and water after it. 

 The sheep who seem, here in their native soil, glad to get a bite of some- 

 thing green, run down from the parched hills, and feed along shore. 

 The hog, too, comes in for his share. The whole animal kingdom run 

 to the lake for a living. It is a written invitation to navigation and cul- 

 tivation. The mountainous parts of Peru are very dry. 



November 15, 1853. — At 1 p. m., half the heavens are covered with 

 > cumulus clouds. Air, 56°; lake water, 64°. Thunder to the northward, 

 and rain falling there ; the east wind blows fresh. The beach is of gray 

 sand, and in places muddy swamp. The rush grows along shore. Here 

 and there the lake is shoal to the nearest island, about a mile off. The 



