Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-05-03
SOUTH AMERICA.
How the Great West Coast Cities are
Built.

SOUTH AMERICA.
Built.
The west coast of South America from
Guayaquil, in Ecuador, to Valparaiso. in
Chile, nearly 1000 miles, is bcrdered by a
barren waste of mountains of rock and
sand, from 500 10 500 miles wide, forming
the Andes. where rain never falls and YER
dure is seldom seen. 4 more ferbiddiug
aspect | have never seen. Great varieties
of tropical fruits are shipped from Ecua-
dor, where the land is low and vegetation
luxUriant, and where epidemic feyers pre-
vail all the year round. La the valleys
behind and transversely through the
mountains Of Peru great quantities of
fruit and sugar cane grow and are brought
down TO the coast on donkeys through the
mountain passes. Apples and pears do
not seem to be good, nor the peaches
neither DO the oranges compare with those
from Cuba and Florida, but the bananas,
mangoes, grenadillas, or pomegranates.
chillmoilas, figs and grapes are excellent,
especially the latter, both red and white;
those brought down to the ports of Piseo
and Huaseo are very celebrated and make
excellent raisins. Callao and Valparaiso,
the two largest ports on the coasts. are the
only ones where docks have been erected
for the ships TO discharge their csrgoes,
and drydoeks for repairs.
At all the other ports, and even at
those, also, the ships usually lie out in the
roadsteads or bays, and discharge by means
of lighters, and the passengers by small
barges. Many of the ports being greatly
exposed, this is often very dangerous in
rough weather, and sometimes impossible.
Al of the ports represent larger cities in
the interior, although Callao, the port of
Lima, and Valparaiso, the port of Santi-
ago, Iquique and Others, have grown to be
large cities themselves. Lima is an inter-
esting old capital, with its ancient
churches, monasteries, statues, etc. The
Hall of Deputies was once the Hall OF
Inquisition, and has magnificent carved
ceilings of mahogany from Spain. There
President Prado was assassinated few
years ago. The city has been somewhat
depressed since the war with Chile and
the exhaustion of the guano deposits, and
does not present the air of prosperity
which characterizes the Chilean capital
Mr.. Meiggs built railroad about 800
miles over the Andes, with the view of
tapping the rich silver mines and the val
leys beyond. 1t was not quite completed,
and during the last year several large and
costly bridges were carried away by land
slides He also built another road from
Mollends, 400 miles south of Caliao, to
Pune, on Lake Titicaca, 325 miles, with a
branch stretching out toward Cuzco. 1t
passes through Arequipa, the second city
of Peru, the entrepot of many valuable
products from the interior valleys, and of
large quantities of wool from the pampas,
or high table-lands, between the mountain
ranges. No carriages are seen in the
streets, bu. they are full of drivers of
donkeys and llamas loaded with enormous
burdens. There is also tramway there.
The city is beautifully situated in the val
ley of the river, and surrounded by the
lofty peaks of the Andes, Of which the
beautiful Misti and Chauchani are 1860
and 10000 feet high. The city has suf-
fered greatly from earthquakes, and but
few buildings are erected of more than one
story in hight. Some of the roofs are of
slabs of stone, inserted between railroad
iron rails, and the whole firmly bound to-
gether to prevent any crumbling or falling
of detached pieces. should not like to
rest under one of them during an earth
quake until had seen some one try the
experiment.
The line OF railway passes over weary
waste of barren mountains of rock and
sand, with no green thing, until you reach
the pampas between the Andes and the
Cordilleras, where there are small tufts of
heritage, where l saw feeding the vicouna,
wild, and hocks of alpaca and llamas.
Some Of these animals range almost up to
the snow-line, and the higher up they go
the finer is their wool, that of the vicouna
being taken from those animals, which
are killed by hunters, bringing five shill-
ings per pound in London. The wool of
| the alpaca is sometimes sheared once in
two years, when the staple becomes two
| feet long and very valuable. The railway
crosses the mountains to the hight of a.
466 feet, and passes in view of the u
binas, 10000 feet; Pichupichee, 1880
| feet; Misti, Chauchani and Coropuna, o.
| 800 feet above the sea. Puno is 1880 feet
above the sea, and its large cathedral,
which once contained ten affairs of silver,
but only one now, is said to have greater
altitude tbanany other building of its size
in the world.
Lake Titicaca is 1880 feet above the
sea and about 140 miles long; steamers
cross the lake to Chililaga, in Bolivia, pass
ing the islands of Titicaca, the Sun and
the Moon, where are interesting ruins of
the ancient strongholds of the Incas. Be-
fore us, in full view, were the lofty, snow
clad peaks of Sorota, Yampa and Ilimaani.
A stage runs from Chililiga to La Paz, the
capital of Bolivia, which is 50 miles dis
tant, and is situated in deep pocket of
the mountains, formerly the site of extern
sive gold washings. Its streets are up and
down the steep sides of the mountain, well
paved with small cobble-stones and washed
by mountain streams running through
them. 1t has one of the most unique
stone churches in South America, with
beautiful domes and arches and win
dows of alabaster. 1t is about 800 years
old