ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
walls erected by shepherds as shelters. A gable-roofed 
hut was occasionally seen. Picturesque natives in their 
ponchos and red or yellow scarves gazed, astonished, at 
the train throbbing along slowly upon the steep gradient 
of that elevated barren country. The cold seemed intense 
after the tropical heat of Lima. It was snowing hard. 
In the daytime I generally travelled seated in front of 
the engine, in order to have a better view of the land¬ 
scape. In the train everybody suffered from soroche or 
mountain-sickness, which attacked most people when 
brought up quickly by the railway from the sea to such 
high elevations. I was driven away from the front of 
the engine by the cold rain and sleet beating with great 
force into my face, and obscuring the landscape to such 
an extent that I could see nothing at all. 
When it cleared up we were travelling in a region 
of marshes and pools in the lowest point of depressions, 
then along a magnificent lake with green and brown 
fantastically shaped mountains and hills in the fore¬ 
ground, and a high snowy range in the background. 
The effects of light when the storm was raging over the 
lake, with its conical and semi-spherical islands dotting 
the water, were intensely picturesque. 
After that the plateau became less interesting. We 
descended gradually 400 metres (1,312 feet) to the junc¬ 
tion of Juliaca, 3,825 metres (12,550 feet) above sea level. 
At that place the luxurious car which had taken me 
there had to be switched off from the Puno Line to the 
Cuzco Line. 
I had dinner in the hotel, and again was impressed 
by the great honesty of the Peruvian people in the in¬ 
terior, and their considerate manners. It was somewhat 
curious to see the Indian waiter — most clumsy, dressed 
up in uncomfortable and ill-fitting European clothes —- 
waiting on a medley of strange passengers, such as red¬ 
faced Spanish priests, tidy, smooth, oily-haired Peruvians, 
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