Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-10-25

| on THE DOWN GRADE
Not . great way from vincocAya the road
passes between two brackish lakes, both higher
up than Titicaca, named respectively saracocha
and Cachipascana. They are splendid bodies
Of water, blackened ct ali times Of year BY wild
duck and other fowl, but whether they are
nsvigable or not nobody knows nor 10 IL q
matter OF much consequence in this uninhabited
region. For miles We run along the banks Of
| . river fed from the clouds, where droves Of
| laden uamas, driven by Indians are Is much q
feature OF tho landscape rs camels in Arabia
Though . LONG stretch Of this "land Of the
sky" is exceptionally rich in water and pastur.
| age Cfor Peru, where the face Of the earth ID
mostly covered with dry sand, the cold pre-
vents anybody from living here. Away MP
where nothing grows, many Enthusiastically
| shaped rocks are seen, As if the Titans Of the
Andes had their halls Of statusry in thsss
solitudea
| sNow-cArpED sENr1SELa
As We slowly descend to lesser heights the
great mountain, "Misti," which stands behind
Arequipa, seems to come Hospitality forth "a
meet us. Though only 1850 feet high, this
| inactive volcano is one Of the most beautiful In
| ali south America, being . cone Of perfect
regularity. crowned with snow during most OF
the year while eternal summer reigns at ito
feet. Close by Misti apparently but in reality
separated from it about seventy miles by the
|
tlnel called Coropuna, nearly a, 600 feet high.
| Then there 10 Charchani little north Of MIST,
about 1900 feet high; Pichupicha, to the
southward, 1880 feet, and Ell Ubinas, only
in the sixteenth century
| But MIST is grandest Of all, though 5000
| feet nearer to earthly things than Coropuna,
probably because the beauty Of its cone is
not detracted from BY too near neishbors.
Many wild tales are connected with this
| mountain n NJ In
| dian superstitions. The Aymaras and Quin-
! chuas, who come down from Puno and
above to Arequipa, II compelled by business
to remain few days in the lower attitudes,
| which affect them as unpleasantly As the
heights do US, invariably 60 with their llamas
| away up into the wild recesses Of Misti to
| rest themselves" 40 they say, and also to
perform some unknown religious ceremonies.
FATAL EXPLORING TRIP.
Not great while ago two young Englishmen
residing in Arequipa undertook to explore
| Misti, actuated purely by spirit OF adventure
and also to discover q possible trail which
| might be followed to the other side and thus
save the customary wide detour. The oldest
was man Of twenty-eight years, the other Q
gaily, with no thought of the fate that awaited
them. Failing to return in course Of time Q
party at length went forth to look for them.
After weary search the bodies Of the two
were found. the elder in Q crouching attitude,
with his back against rock; and the boy, who
foot OF nearby precipice. From scraps of
writing in their note books it was learned they
lived at least three days without food or water,
having lost their way on the far side of the
great mountain and Travelled round and round
in its trackless SHOWS. The man died first,
from cold, exposure and starvation, but youth
is hard to kill and the lad, crazed by the awful
silence and the loss OF his companion, paced to
and fro beside the corpse another long night,
and at last in his despair, had thrown himself
| over the precipice.
FROM AREouIPA TO THE OCEAN,
At Arequipa pronounced Are-i-keep-ahs),
one Of the Oldest and most interesting cities in
Peru-to which We shall return later on-the
traveller must stop over night, having arrived
about dark on the day he leaves Puno and TAX
ing the same train next morning for Mollendo.
Along the side Of the track for a distance of
| more than eighty-fve miles runs an 8inch iron
pipe for the purpose Of supplying water to
Molendo and the intervening stations, there
being none near the coast Coming from
springs In the mountains near Arequipa, 1000
feet above the sea and extending to the Pacific,
1t is the longest aqueduct in the world and is
capable OF discharging $50, 900 gallons Of water
during every twenty-four hours.
From Arequipa to the ocean is 107 miles, and
most Of the route lies across the hot and life
less desert OF Islay. After descending the
| shoreward range of the Andes the train zig
zags rapidly down the barren foothills to the
great desert, which it crosses with directness
IN marked contrast to its tortuous course
among the heights, and finally reaches the
shore. where it winds for q long distance close
to Its edge before coming to the present port
ACROSS THE DESERT.
In its narrowest place the desert IL about
sixty miles across and before the day of the
railroad the journey had to be made on donkey
back. Then it was customary to cross it in the
night to avoid the heat and glare Of the sun,
which must have been intolsrabls, Judging
from the accounts Of travellers. One who
crossed in this manner but failed to reach
Arequipa before sunrise says that about S
o CLOCK clear Wilderness appeared in the sky,
the stars paled their luster and the day began
to break. Soon a rudy orange tint spread
over the soil Of the pamps, now become firm
and compact. In few minutes the disk of the
sun appeared above the horizon, and as we
marched full in front of the god of day We
found ourselves in the midst Of . luminous tor
rent which so daZzled and incommoded us that
| to escape from the new torture We doubled
| ourselves up like hedge-hogs. This inconvs-
nlent posture rendered Us unjust to the claims
OF the rising sun. Instead Of welcoming his
appearance We were inclined to wish he had re-
NAMED out OF sight, and it was not until 8
O'Clock that the sun, now high above the hori-
zon, permitted Us to raise our heads"
WASTE OF SAND AND STONES.
OF course we In the cars suffered little of this,
though nearly suffocated by the dust; but can
never forget the aspect of the country with the
glare of the sun upon it-one vast waste of
| sands and stones, hills bare of all but cactus,
measureless stretches of sand that look like the
| shores of the sea from which the waves have
receded-and in truth the entire section was
once part Of the ocean floor, from which the
waves receded ages ago. All the tints of the
| landscape are pale in tone-sea green, silver
gray, amethyst and faintest blue. There are no
| trees nor even bushes. except in those infre-
quent spots where fertility has been produced
| by irrigation, and wherever the tanks that are
| placed ut regular intervals to supply the loco
motives with water, fed from the long aaue-
| duct, have leaked or dripped into the ankle
| deep dust grass grows luxuriantly indicating
| what the result might be, even in this desert,
| under judicious system Of irrigation. There
| are many peculiar mounds of sand, white as
snow, all blown into semi-circular shapes like
| huge crescent moons, showing the direction
| and force OF the prevailing winds. But for
most Of the distance not a living thing is to be
seen, except at the few stations. where be-
draggled women. dusty as their surroundings,
come on board with peaches to sell-tolerably
| fair looking fruit, but hard as the rocky hills
| and tasteless a. the sands IN which they grew.
FANNIE B. WARD.
Written for THE EVENING STAR.
Clover Hill.
1T6O-189O.
Thy green lawns, maple sKirted
To baser things perverted,
By human life deserted,
l