XXII 
ON THE PACIFIC COAST 
331 
of Mancora. The peaks are often truncated cones, so symmetrical 
that until closely examined they might be supposed the work of 
art. 
... At a little way within its mouth the river is only from 80 
to 100 yards wide, and this average breadth is preserved, so far as 
I can learn, for at least 50 miles up. It is of no great depth, for, 
when at its lowest, a man may wade over it in most places with 
at least his head out of water ; but as the current is pretty strong, 
and there are some deep holes, it is considered unsafe to ford it 
on horseback. . . . Very rarely, and with risk and difficulty, are 
heavy goods conveyed on a raft for a few miles up the stream. 
There are no bridges across it, but ferries are established at the 
villages and principal farms. The fluctuations of level throughout 
•the entire year rarely reach 10 feet, but in the ahos de agua or 
rainy years there have sometimes been floods to a much greater 
height. 
In ascending the valley of the Chira we come on a series of 
alternating contractions and lake-like expansions, the latter at one 
period no doubt really lakes. A little above the village of 
Amotape, 1 1 miles from the sea, following the course of the river, 
but only 7 in a straight line, the valley contracts, so that from the 
base of the hills on one side to the base of those on the other 
there is barely half a mile. From this point to above the small 
village of Tangarara, on the right bank, a distance of 15 English 
miles along the course of the river, there has been a large lake of 
a long oval form, the ancient margin retiring from the actual river- 
bank at one point on the north side nearly 3^^ miles, and having 
an average distance of 2 miles. Deep furrows, like river-courses, 
extend from the widest part (called Monte Abierto) to the 
adjacent hills, and in the rainy years rivers again run along them 
and enlarge their beds. On the south side the space between the 
river and the base of the cliffs is also of considerable breadth, and 
has on it the villages of La Huaca and Bibiate in its lower part, 
and higher up the large farm of Macacara, 10 miles from 
Amotape. 
There are similar contractions of the valley, with intermediate 
lake-like expansions, up to 52 miles from the coast. 
On examining the cliffs that bound the valley of the Chira, we 
find them to consist chiefly of alternating horizontal layers of very 
various composition, some of them apparently repeated at various 
depths. The uppermost stratum is in many parts a calcareous 
sandstone, of minute fragments of shells, grains of quartz, etc., 
more or less compactly welded together. When of open texture 
it is the material for the filtering-stones, which are largely manu- 
factured at Payta, and are not only used throughout the province, 
but are exported to Guayaquil and other ports along the coast. . . . 
