The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-26
Curious and Interesting Surround
High as Mount Washington.
SACRED ISLANDS AND RUINS
A SIX-HUNDRED-TON SHIP BROUGHT
FROM SCOTLAND IN PIECES.
The Llama, the Curious Animal Which
Clothes, Feeds and Warns People
Who Live in the Mountains.
Copyright. 1885, by Frank G. carpenter3


CHILILAYA, Bolivia, May g. - Steam
boating above the clouds: floating calmly
over the highest navigable waters of the
globe; sailing under the glacial SHOWS of
the loftiest peaks of the Andes, so near the
sky that heaven and earth meet close
around you and make you think you are
on the very roof of the world. This is what
L have been doing for the last day and
night upon Lake Titicaca. AS you read
this letter you will be sweltering under the
hot sun of an American summer. 1t is al
ways winter upon Lake Titicaca, cold
wet winter during half the year and cold
dry winter during the remainder. At some
times the winds from the Andes sweep
over the waters like a blizzard and at
others it is as calm as the Dead sea in mid
summer. The air is now as fresh as a sea
breeze. 1t is cold and bracing, but so rare
that 1 cannot walk fast without my heart
jumping up into my throat. Some of you
will soon be going to Mount Washington to
avoid the heat of the city. This great lake
is more than twice as high up in the air
as the top of Mount Washington, and it is
situated amid scenery which is infinitely
more grand Some of you will spend your
vacations upon our great lakes This lake
is almost big Lake Erie. 1t has a
and its scenery is a combination of that of
Lakes Lucerne and Geneva, in Switzerland
and of our own beautiful Lake Champlain.
Our great lakes freeze over during the win
ter Titicaca never freezes.
1 have written of the skies of the Andes.
Those of Titicaca have all of the beauties of
the Andean heavens, combined with others
peculiarly their own. 1 cannot give you the
sense of loftiness one feels here. The clouds
rise up about the shores of Titicaca like
walls upon which canvas of heavenly blue
fits closely down, so that you feel that be-
yond those walls there are mighty depths
and that if you should sail through them
you would drop into space. The air is so
clear that you can see for miles Leaving
Juno, Peru, was shown the sacred blue
Island of Titicaca, fifty miles away, and
soon other islands came into view, which
seemed to float upon the waters as though
they were balloons or balls and not the out
groupings of the highest mountain chain
of our hemisphere. One island, I remember,
rose out of the waters in the shape of a
gigantic mushroom of soft blue velvet, an
other looked like a mammoth whale whose
head and tail stood out high above the
water These were optical illusions, due to
the popularity of the atmosphere, but they
upon other waters.
AN UNKNOWN INLAND SEA.
You know of Lake Titicaca from your
Biographies. They tell you it lies in the
Andes, about half way between the 18TH
mus of Panama and Cape Horn, 1850 feet
above the sea- They represent the lake as
oval in shape and state that it is 120 miles
long, ffty-seven miles wide, and that it has
an area of ON SCuar miles Some of
these statements are true. Others are all
conjecture. The lake has in reality never
been carefully surveyed. 1t has great bays
which have never been sounded, and it
winds in and out in places like river, CIV
ing a succession of beautiful scenes of ISL
ands mountains and coast. In crossing
from Peru to Bolivia we sailed a distance of
10 miles over water which was in many
places, the captain said, more than 1000 feet
deep. Lake Superior has, I believe, an aver
age depth of something like 600 feet. Some
parts of the bottom of Lake Titicaca have
never been reached and the captain told me
that if he should land upon certain parts of
Titicaca island he would have to cast his
anchor high upon the rocky Shores as the
waters which wash them are so deep that
the graphing hooks could not reach the
bottom. Think of a body of water like
this at an altitude of more than two miles
above the sea. Let it be more than 800 miles
from the ocean in a basin which next to
Thibet is in the loftiest inhabited plateau
of the world. Remember that you must
cross mighty desert and climb on the rail-
road over pass which is nearly three miles
above the sea to get to it and you have
slight idea of the wonders of Lake Titicaca.
You must add. however, that while it is fed
k1,o aY,d r1o oia Of no nd
has itself no visible outlet to either ocean.
Nine rivers flow into it, but only one carries
off any part of it's waters. This is the
Desaguadero, which connects it with it's lit
tie sister lake. known as Lake Poopo, which
lies about $50 miles further south in this
same Bolivian plateau. The Desaguadero
has in this distance fall of 500 feet. 1t is
a rushing turbulent stream large enough to
be nayigated by steamers for a part of its
length. 1t carries off a large volume of
water. but Lake Poopo has no outlet to the
sea- and Notwithstanding this drain, Lake
Titicaca remains at the same level whether
the season be wet or dry, year in and year
out
The steamboats, which SAL upon Lake Titi-
caca might be called the steamers of the
heavens They sail at times III and out of
any craft on earth. Think of lifting an iron
ship of 600 tons over pass higher than the
top of Pixies Peak This was what was
dcne with the steamer Choya, upon which
am now writing. The ship was made in
Scotland and brought to Molendo in pieces
Here it was loaded on the cars and carried
over the Andes to Puno. 1t was there put
together, and it now sails as we'll and fur
nishes its passengers with as comfortable
accommodations as any steamer of its size
on American waters. 1t is as beautiful as
gentleman's yacht, and it can make twelve
knots an hour without trouble. 1t is pro-
palled by a screw. and its fuel is Australian
coal, which is brought over more than 1000
miles of water and lifted on the railroad
over the Andes to Puno, at the edge of the
lake. By the time II reaches the ship the
coal costs about $25 in gold per ton. but
the traffic on the lake Is so great that the
steamers, I am told, pay for themselves
ma y times over. A large part of the
freight of Bolivia goes to the markets of