RIO DESAGUEDERO. 



101 



An Indian spade was leaning against the door-post, and while Rich- 

 ards stood intently looking at it, with his hands in his pockets, the In- 

 dians were closely watching him and talking to each other, as though 

 surprised a spade should attract so much attention. At the end of a 

 crooked stick of wood a rude iron plate, narrow and long, was fastened 

 by a strip of raw hide ; near the lashing was listened, also in Qe same 

 way, a cow's horn, on which the digger placed his foot. This spade is 

 used for digging the soil on the side of the hill where the plough and 

 oxen cannot go. In the wet lowlands long poles, shod with small iron 

 plates, are used. One man pushes his pole into the earth, another puts 

 in crosswise, and while they both pry up, a third, on his knees, turns 

 the sod over with his hands. In this way they ridge the meadows and 

 sow oh the polled ground. The barley comes to head with very long 

 beards, but bears no grain. 



From the small town of Zepita the contrast between the snow-capped 

 mountains to the east and the dark blue waters of the lake is remark- 

 able. Here we succeeded in bottling two fish from the lake, without 

 scales, about eight inches long, designed for Professor Agassiz. 



The town of Desaguedero has a population of five hundred. At 1 1 

 a. m. we arrived, and found the governor busily employed at a fish 

 breakfast. He was a cheerful, fat, polite, three-quarter-blooded Indian. 

 In return for fish we gave him our passports ; after reading them, he 

 ordered the Indian servant to fetch a bottle of lea wine. As he drew 

 the cork he told me the Indians believed Lake Titicaca emptied its 

 waters into the Pacific ocean by a subterraneous passage under»the Cor- 

 dillera range. They had found the Titicaca rush lying on the coast 

 near Cobija, which differed essentially from weeds growing in salt water. 

 A difference of opinion seemed to arouse him, and he said : " There are 

 more than twenty different streams of water flowing from the mountain 

 sides into this Titicaca basin, and not one has been seen flowing out; 

 now, if I keep pouring wine into this cup, it will overflow and run down 

 the sides, won't it ?" Provided you do not drink it up as the sun does 

 the waters, we answered. 



After breakfast the governor walked to the river Desaguedero with 

 us. This river is the southeastern boundary line of Peru. We were 

 detained a short time at the bridge to allow one hundred unloaded 

 llamas to pass from Bolivia to Peru. Rush balsas are secured side by 

 side, bridge fashion, and a quantity of rushes piled upon them. They 

 are kept in place by large rope cables fastened on each side of the river 

 to a stone foundation. The distance from the shore of Peru to the 

 Bolivian side is fifty yards. The river three fathoms deep under the 



