Omaha daily bee., 1898-07-31
RAPID TRANSIT In BOLIVIA
Wild Ride Over Mountain and Desert in
South America.
ODD FEATURES OF COUNTRY AND PEOPLE
Conspicuous Poverty of Soil and In
MISUNDERSTANDING Farming on
Barren PIateaus-TOwns
on Lofty Pcrches.
ID FEATURES OF COUNTRY AND PEOPLE

copyrighted, 1898, by Frank G. Carpenter)
OHURo, Bolivia, June 1S.-(Special Cor
respondence of The ~Bee.)-During the last
three days l have been riding behind gal
Looping teams of from four to eight mules
over the ~Desaguadero or Bolivian plateau,
and | am now In the mining town OF Oruro,
away up in the mountains, 600 miles by
rail from the Pacific ocean. am In a
country which is like no other on the face
OF the globe. Situated from II, 900 to 5000
feet above the sea, 1t has a soil, a vegeta-
ton and a climate peculiarly its own. Its
skies as viewed from day to day are DIFF
ferent from those which hang over any part
of the United States. Its people are like
none we have on our continent, and | seem
TO be in another world. 1t is the world on
the heights, the land highest on earth on
which numerous cities and villiges exist, a
very land Of the sky.
This region is one of the little known
parts OF the earth. What 1t was in the
past is conjecture. There are many evil
dences that at one time there lay between
these ranges of the Andes a vast inland
sea, hundreds of miles long and in places
sixty and more miles in width. The Des-
aguadero plateau, which was a part Of this
sea, extends from here to Lake Titicaca,
'Ns - '"N OAN ~ YIN " tiN UNIV
plains of Peru, and far south of where I
now am 1t unites with the highlands of the
Argentine. Where ! crossed the plateau in
going from Lake Titicaca to La Paz 1t was
forty-seven miles wide, and the ground was
almost as fiat as a floor. i found ii almost
level in my three days gallop TO Oruro,
and 1t seemed to ne that ! could every
where see signs that the whole plain had
once been covered with water. i rode for
miles over beds of stones and in other
places passed over wide stretches of what
seemed like sea sand. Sea shells are often
found here, and Prof. Agassiz believed that
the water level of this sea was from 800
to 400 feet higher than the present level
of the basin, Today the only large bodies
of water found in it are Lake Titicaca and
Lake Aullagas or Poopo, which are con-
nected by the Desaguadero river. Lake
Poopo is only n short distance from here.
1t is a brackish lake fifty miles long by
about thirty miles wide, and is so deep that
1t is now proposed TO put steamers upon 1t,
and IL may be that there will be a line of
ships sailing from 1t through the Desagua-
dero river TO Lake Titicaca, Lake Poopo
has no visible outlet, and if its waters get
TO the sea it is by some waterway under
the earth.
Modes of Travel.
There are few good roads in South Amer
ica, The ways among the mountains are
mule trails, and in many cases steps have
been cut along the sides OF precipices so
that you could crawl along within an inch
OF SO Of destruction. Now and then a
mule falls 5000 feet or so, and is usually
left to lie where 1t falls. You often have
TO dismount to help the mules, and It takes
hours TO go a few miles, There are In the
whole country, which is one-sixth the size
OF the United States, only rs miles OF
stage lines. embracing roads to the capital.