The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-12-24
MINING Aeovg THE CLOUDS.
life of the Natives of the Highest SGT
tieanent in the World.

| life of the Natiyes of the Highest SoS-
tlezent in the World.
1t seems strange that so little should be
known of region above the clouds, that
has been inhabited by civilized people 30
| long and one so full of interest as the small
mining town ia Peru. But during resi-
dence of eighteen months in the Andes in
| that country [ found that traveller in
| those attitudes learns little or nothing of
| it, excerting what information he picks mp
| by personal observation directly along his
| route.
This is owing to the fact that with few
| exceptions, the only people he meets are
Indians and mistis (half breeds), both OF
whom are extremely ignorant, and can
give stranger no information about the
country, not even in the immediate vicin-
ity of their residence.
Neither nmuch information be obtained
even in the cities among the whites, as the
Peruvians are not inclined to trouble
themselves TO a great extent with statistics
or the topography of their country, SO a
stranger travelling through Peru must
rely upon his own observations for such in
formation as he desires, and when he
reaches an altitude where his health al
most forsakes him and his heart pumps
like a steam fire engine ne loses much of
that keen desire he felt for knowledge of
this romantic country when he first
touched her shores, and his only wish,
amounting sometimes almost to anguish,
is to reach lower level where he can draw
. full breath.
Business kept me in the Cordilleras of
Peru for a period of fourteen months,
being for all that time at an elevation
ranging from 1880 TO over 1900 feet
above sea level, and | several times visited
what / believe is, beyond doubt, the highest
inhabited place in the world-that is a
little mining camp near the ruins of the
old town Of Ahnanea, in the district of
Sandia, Peru This old mining town is
situated on an altitude of 16, 400 feet above
sea level and at one time contained about
800 inhabitants, mostly Portuguese; but
when Peru gained her independence from
Spain they were compelled TO desert their
mines and homes and flee the country. All
that is left of the old town today are the
walls Of the houses and the church, las bo-
cas- de las mineas ftunnels) and las trapiches
(stone mills), with which they pulverized
the ore.
The mines comprise two large veins,
from five to twenty feet in thickness, of
low grade ore, and running into them
are numberless stringers, sometimes not
thicker than knife blade, and opening
out at intervals into pockets of extremely
rich ore. These stringers are being
worked today, and there, just above and
overlooking the old town of Annanea, are
men drilling, blasting and gadding at an
elevation of II $50 feet above sea level, and
surrounded by perpetual snow.
At this great elevation the air is ex-
tremely light, and nothing but an Indian
born and raised in the Cordilleras can per-
form any labor there. The mine is owned
by one Senior Gaymes, an Argentine, and
is worked in very crude way by natives,
whom he pays five reales per day in plata
aranas, degraded Bolivian coin, the
equivalent Of which in United States coin
would be about Jwenty-eight cents. The
Indians find their own living. l will not
go into further details, as the object of
this letter is only to bring to notice the ex-
istence of this little mining camp, for
which claim, without fear of contradic-
ton, the distinction of being the highest
inhabited place in the world-17, $50 feet
above sea level-San Francisco Chronicle.