Santa Fe daily New Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1885-1897, 1893-06-24
RUINS OF CHAN.CHAN.
Prof Bandalier Writes Entertaining
ly Of His Archaeological
Lab0rs in Peru.
The People and Their Customs-A Ter.
IA Incognita-A Deliver After
Facts in q Rich Field.

Writing to friend in Santa Fe, Prof
Ad. +. Bandalier, the widely known archa-
ologist, sends this:
TRUxILLo, Peru, May 30, 1891 am
here since day before yesterday, and hope
to be able, next Monday, to commence
the survey of the enormous ruins of Chan
Chan, stu ated between here and the sea-
shore, at distance Of about three miles
from this town. Truxille is little place
of scarcely 5000 inhabitants, very old,
having been founded in 1887 by Piza.ro.
Until after the war with Chile it contained
considerable wealth, but that unlucky
war gave poor Peru the finishing blow
and ruined the country completely for
decades. Hence Trn1illo is, though not
as bad looking as for instance Pisco, still
on decline, and many Of the handsome
mansions are abandoned and look very
much dilapidated and forlorn. Neverthe-
less there is an aspect Of greater neat
ness and care about the occupied build
ings here than even iu many parts of
Lima, and the churches especially, while
not as vast, are still better kept, cleaner
on the outside than the great cathedral
or the elaborate churches of the Merced.
or of San Francisco at the Peruvian capi-
tai. Truxillo has Its tramway, and a
railroad from the seashore to the Chicama
valley inland, where the vast sugar
estates lie, with faint hope of having
that road extended, at some future time,
into the mountainous interior, where
silver mines are said to abound, or at
least silver veins. The surroundings OF
Truxillo afford to the eye the same
picture of repulsive aridity mingled with
patches Of vegetation peculiar to the
whole Peruvian coast. Only the mount
aims of the coast range are more distant
from the sea than at Lima, and they are
even more forbidding and steep. To
one accustomed to the worst of New Mex
ican mountains and valleys the landscape
is less surprising, and recalls the dreary
slopes ascending towards the Organ
with series of high peaks
and crests as barren and sharp as any
range in New Mexico and Arizona. Not
a blade of grass, not even cactus,
adorns thtss horrid slopes. They are
like grim wall that interposes itself be-
tween the sandy coast line and the high
interior plateau between and above the
Cordillera proper. Of the snowy peaks
of the latter none are in sight from here,
but from the sea tho tall "Nevados" Of
the Sierra de la yiuda near the famous
Cerro de Pasco appear visible, with much
greater distjnctness than for instance
Climb arazcsfrom tho k,arbor Of Quay
aauil. Those peaks approach in alti-
tude 10000 feet, and huge glaciers can be
discerned, worming their way down the
slopes to the snowy level of the Pena at
their feet.
This, as you know, is my seventh sally
from Lima, for purposes Of exploration,
since the third of July of last year. Only
the second of these undertakings, the one
at Cajamarquilla in the Rimac valley,
short distance above Lima, has been un-
successful, congestion having compelled
me to give up tho work after two days,
and to return to Lima for treatment.
Here as nearly all the large rnins lie near
or on the shore, anticipate little or no
trouble from my left ear, and hope even
to get 40 far as to be able to rise to
moderate heights without evil conse-
quences. Nearly all the valley being
malarial, it is not advisable to dwell in
them during the months OF April and
May for the new conner. These valleys,
formed by the little streames trickling
down from the sierra in the winter, rush.
ing down from it as roaring torrents
from December to March, are not very
numerous to the Pacific slope of Peru.
In them vegetation Of profitable char
acter is found, their soil is often exceed
ingly fertile, and there liethe huge estates
that produce according to locality, sugar,
cotton, rice and the maniocca. Many of
these haciendas are also what would be
called in New Mexico cattle ranches, some
being exclusively composed OF pasturage,
with alfalfa as the main staple. During
the dry season of the winter the cattle are
driven down from the sierra in herds and
placed on cattle-haciendas along the coast
for pasturage, moderate compensation
being paid per head in proportion to
time.
The coast valleys are only the outlets
of what corresponds to the canons in New
Mexico, the Quebradas Of Peru. They
are mountain gorges in which stream
decends from the snow line to the ocean.
Most of them are very pictures
que. In their lower portions a
stately tropical vegetation grows and
blooms in abundance. Palms rear
their heads above dense shrubbery, and
tha narrow bottoms are covered with
pasturage or cultivated fields of hacien-
das, but the width Of such handsomely
decked spaces is inconsiderable, from one
to three miles at most, and directly from
the upper-most enclosures ascend the
naked and CHASTITY mountains in great
steepness. 1t is through the quebradas
that ascent to the Sierras is alone pos
sible; there are no wagon roads, only
mule paths, sometimes dangerous in |
places. It is to such n quebrada that