Morning journal and courier., 1891-12-14
MINING ABOVE THE CLOUDS.
Life Of the Natives Of the Highest Set
 clement in the World.

clement in the World.
 From the San Francisco ChronicIe.l
 It seems strange that so little should be known of region above the clouds, that has been inhabited by civilized people so long and one so full of interest as the small mining town in 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. excepting what information he picks up 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 Chalf breeds), both of whom are extremely ignorant, and can give stranger no information about the coun- try, not even in the immediate vicinity of their residence.
 Neither can much information be ob- tained even in the cities among the whites, as the Peruvisns are not inclined to trouble themselves to great extent with statistics or the topography of their country. so stranger travelling through Peru must rely upon his own observations for such infor- nation as be desires, and when he reaches an altitude where his health almost for sakes him and his heart pumps like steam fire engine he loses much of that keen de- sire he felt for knowledge of this roman tic country when he first touched her shores, and his only wish, amounting sometimes almost to anguish, Is so reach a lower level where he can draw & full breath.
 Business kept me in the Cordilleras of Peru for a period of fourteen months, I being for all that time at an elevation rang ing from 15, 500 to 16, 900 feet above sea level and several times visited what be- heve is, beyond doubt, the highest inhabi- ted place in the world-that is a little min ing camp near the ruins of the old town of Annanea, in the highest district of Saniiia Peru. This old mining town is situated on an altitude of l6 400 feet above sea level and at one time contained about 500 in habitsnts, mostly Pnrtugese; 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 to-day are the walls of the houses and the church, las bocas de las mineas (tunnels) and las trapiches (stone miIls), with which they pulveIized the ore.
 The mines comprise two large veins, from five to twenty feet in thickness of low grade ore, and running into them hre numberless stringers, sometimes not thicker than knife blade and opening out at inter vslsinto 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, blast ing and gsdding at an elevation of 17,2S0 feet above sea level, and surrounded by perpetual snow.
 At this great elevation the air is extreme ly light, and nothing but an Indian born and raised in the Cordilleras can perform any labor there. The mine is owned by Senor Gaymes. an Argentine, and is worked in a very crude way by the natives, whom he pays five reales per day in plata aranas, a begraded Bolivion coin, the equivalent of which in United States coin would be twen- ty-eight cents. The Indians find their own living. I will not go into further details, as the object of this letter is only to bring to notice the existence of this little mining camp, for which claim, without fear of of contradiction, the distinction of being the highest inhabited place in the world r, 2S0 feet above sea level.