Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1890-12-11
CROSSING THE ANDES.
TRAVEL ON THE HIGHEST
RAILROAD THE WORLD.
Far Above the Clouds-Panting for
Breath on High Altitudes-The
Sirroche and Its Remedies.

Star, is railway journey OF 1926 miles,
all in Peru, over the Andes and across
desert. Starting at an elevation of
-, 500 feet the road rises by gradual as
cent to the extraordinary altitude of
1866 feet, the highest that wheels
turned by steam have ever attained
This is at point called Crucero Alto,
about midway between Puno and Are
quipa, and by the way some of the re-
cent books on South America confound
Crucero Alto with the pass in Bolivia
known as Alto del Crucero. The latter
is more than 10000 feet high and many
miles further inland on another range of
the Andes not crossed by any railroad,
but by the solitary mule trail which we
traversed some months ago going from
La Paz to the Yungas valley.
This Puno and Mollendo railway was
built for the Peruvian government about
fourteen years ago by Mr.. Henry Meiggs,
and it cost more than $45, 600, 900 for the
1926 miles, or the enormous average of
S135, 600 per mile. But railroad build
ing in the Andes is by no means what
the same thing might be in the United
States. This is really wonderful work,
and though it has few tunnels, no rail
way in the world can show so much eX-
cavation or such massive embankments.
There is another Peruvian railroad,
called the Oroya, also built by Mciggs,
leading from Lima up to the mines of
Cerro del Pasco and thence projected to
the head waters of the Amazon, designed
to connect with that great fuvial high
way and thus make transit to the Allan
tic shorter and cheaper than by the old
routes-which, at some points, will be
even higher than this one. This rail
way, in common with all others in Peru,
is managed by an odd, but polite mix
ture of methods, notably, North Ameri-
can, South American, Peruvian and
English.
A few miles from Crucero Alto is Vim
cocaya, the very loftiest village in all the
world unless it may be some of those in
Central Asia, IA, $50 feet above the sea.
1t is higher than the celebrated mines of
Cerro del Pasco, higher even than famous
Potosi; higher than either Quito, Ecua-
dor, or Leadville, Col nearly twice as
high as the Alpine Hospice of Saint Ber-
nard, and if one were TO put another
Mount Washington on top of the present
one its summit would still be almost 2,
900 feet lower down than Vincocaya!
This Andean village is purely a creation
of the railroad, and boasts of all the ad-
juncts of relay and repairing station, as
well as of so-called American inn, Ell
Hotel Empresa. Why american" do
not know, as the landlord and his wife
are rosy checked, dy-looking Ger
mans, and hardy indeed one needs to be
to live so near the stars. Prof Orton,
of Vassar College, was obliged to pass a
night here, and accustomed as he was to
, the mountain air from his life in Quito,
wrote that he could not sleep at all, but
spent the time painting for breath.
, Long before we arrive at Vincocaya,
coming from either end of the line,
, nearly everybody is suffering from sir
{ roche in greater or less degree. Strange
to say, frequent passing over the same
, heights does not exempt one from the
distressing complaint, and the strongest
and healthiest seem to be more pros
trated by it than the sickly, with the
, exception of one of our immediate party,
e a consumptive young Chilian, travelling
to prolong his span of life, whose sunken
, chest heaves painfully in the effort of
3 respiration and whose pale face has taken
, on ghastly grayish blue. Several pas
, sengers are relieved by copious flow of
E blood from the nose, and a jolly Eng
E lishman from Arequipa, who weighs
) nearly 800 pounds, and says he was
, never ill in his life except passing over
this road, has turned the color of a
boiled lobster, and .gasping with suffo-
cation hold his head with both hands,
, declaring that it is about to burst.
, The remedies commonly made use of
ara bropdy onI hrnmila Of ,,nfacei
, sisted by various smelling salts and the
, lieve so implicitly in the latter preven-
, tive that not one of them will travel in
, the higher attitudes without q generous
supply, which he cuts and sniffs at leis-
' ure, though it be strong enough to draw
' tears from the eyes of craven image.
When mules and horses are prostrated
3 with sirroche the usual cure is to stuff
slices of raw onion up the creatures nos
trils. Many people cannot make this
journey at all, especially those of "full
habit Or who have any chronic heart
trouble. / have known more than one
person to set out bravely for Bolivia who
t was obliged to give it up before the
t highest point on the road was reached.
If fresh from an ocean voyage, or after
long residence near the level of the sea,
the safer way would be to tarry awhile
midway, say at Arcquipa, which has an
: altitude n little less than 5000 feet in
order to accustom ones self by degrees
to the oxygenless air.
The traveller on this railway is con-
stantly reminded of that celebrated
painting called "The Heart of the
Andes" and realizes that he has found
the very spot. 1t is always bitterly cold
on the mountain tops, and when, at Vim
cocaya, we pick our way from the car to
the Hotel Empresa for luncheon, in a
driving storm of sleet and snow, we con-
sole ourselves with the knowledge that
few hours more will bring us down
, into a region of perpetual summer time,
J to the ever blooming roses and soft,
warm sunshine of old Arequipa, the
Inca "Place of Rest" Far as the eye
can reach the soil of the higher attitudes
looks like vast bog covered with
patches of snow and short, coarse grass
: growing in punches. AS the storm in
! creases to raging blizzard, whitening
all the landscape in few moments, the
domesticated llamas and alpacas run to
their corrals for protection, while guiana
l cos, vicunas and other wild creatures
, huddle together to keep warm or skurry
S away to sheltered gorges known only to
1 themselves. Undoubtedly those "foul
= sheep of the andes" belong to the same
family, the alpaca being a cross between
the llama and the sheep, and the guiana
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