1832.] 
CITY OF LIMA. 
443 
vegetable mould, two feet in depth, more or less, the prodigious 
fertility of which amply repays the toils of the agriculturist. 
Lima is supplied with water from the Rimac. This river 
takes its rise in the province of Huarochiri, where it is formed 
from numerous torrents of melted snow, which precipitate them- 
selves from the Cordillera of the Andes. It runs a westerly 
course, over a sandy and stony bed. In its progress, it is used to 
irrigate the farms which lie along either of its banks. A short 
distance before it arrives at the city, a large aqueduct branches 
off to the south, from which the streets of the city are profusely 
watered, there being a stream of water running through every 
street from east to west. The waters which have been employed 
in fertilizing the fields along the rivers' banks are collected into 
two reservoirs : the one to the east of San Christoval they call 
puquios, and it supplies the suburbs of San Lazaro ; the other, to 
the east of the city, is called the targea, and it is from this that the 
cisterns and fountains of the city are supplied. 
The water of Lima is reputed to be unhealthy, and produc- 
tive of derangements of the digestive organs. By analysis it ap- 
pears to contain an unusual quantity of selenite, a large amount 
of chalk or marl, and various oily earths ; and these foreign mat- 
ters are found to increase as the river advances, until finally an 
immense quantity of gross and oily earths, and mephitic airs, are 
found in the solution. Whoever reflects on the source of the wa- 
ters, and the soil over which they pass, would infer that their bad 
qualities were rather to be ascribed to want of proper care in 
their conveyance, than to any inherent want of purity. In the 
reservoir which supplies the pipes and fountains, there are water- 
plants growing, and depositions of decaying vegetable matter ; and 
it is not uncommon to find even dead animals there also. The 
conduits, as they enter the city, pass through .the midst of ceme- 
teries and sepulchres, and under bogs and pools of standing water 
from the dirty streets ; and the incessant rolling of carriages over 
them, as they lie near the surface, is constantly impairing them ; 
so that the waters they convey are impregnated with every im- 
purity, and with the common filthy waters which run in the 
streets. 
The river Rimac separates the city from the suburbs of San 
Lazaro on the north ; and over it there is a beautiful stone bridge, 
