Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-05-14

sands of pounds of sugar a day. There
is no better sugar land anywhere than
this, and we learn in passing that 1t
produces from two to six tons of sugar
per acre, and after once started VIII
keep on producing for as long an six
years. We notice that all of the land
is used. The water is taken from the
IN THE ANDES.
Now we are in the foot hills of the
Andes. How bleak ana bare and gray
they look In the early morning. There
is not a green spot anywhere to be seen
on these vast walls, which here face
the sea. We shall find 1t different as
we rise to the mountains behind.
Here they are of soft silver gray vel
vet where the sun casts its shadows
and of dazzling white where 1t strikes
full In their faces. The only green IL
the little strip along the Rimac. Fur
Their on we notice n thin fuz of green
cropping out of the gray. 1t is as
though the velvet was sptinkled with
q dust OF ground emeralds. Here there
is a little cactus and there n small
bunch of weeds. As we rise higher the
mountains grow greener until at the
level of Mount Washington we find
them covered with a thin coat of veg
citation. AS we near the altitude of
Leadville there is plenty of grass and
at one point we count forty different
kinds of flowers at a stopping Of our
engine. There are buttcrcups without
number, silver gray MOSES and flowers
of all colors the names of which | do
not know. As remark upon the vege-
tation, saying that it is still very
scanty. Mr.. Sherman tells me that
the fact that there Is any green at all
TO be seen is due TO the rainy season.
and that at other times of the year this
whole western side of the Andes is
bleak dry and almost absolutely sterile.
The foot hills which, in fact. are noun
tans in themselves, looked as though
they were of dirt and gravel.
Further up you come into n region of
rocks. where only bits of soil are to be
seen here and there. In such places
every inch of ground is cultivated.
The mountains are terraced clear to
their tops, and some Of them are COW
cred with steps OF green built up with
rocks, and so graduated that man
can stand on one of the lower steps or
lodges and plant the seed or weed the
crops of the next ledge without stoop-
ing over Some of the fields are not a-
big as a bedspread, and some on the
opposite side of the mountain do not
look as big as a pocket handkerchief.
Some patches of corn seem almost in
accessible and remind me of the FARM
ers of West Virginia who are said to
have to plant their crops with rifle.
as the hills are so steep that they are
unable to stand long enough on the
sides to drop the corn in the rows. We
see Indians planting and working in the
fields and pass numerous little Villages
of one-story houses made of sundried
bricks. and rooted with thatch or sheets
of corrugated Iron. In most cases the
Iron plates are not nailed to the huts.
They are merely laid on the rafters and
kept there by covering them with
stones. Many of the houses are not
larger than dog kennels and quite as
4
their inhabitants. who gather around
us Mt the stations, are Of the F.eon
variety. dark faced Indian men. women
and children. ! frightened some OF
the children very much by posing them
for my camera. They had evidently
never heard of photographs, and one
little fellow howled like n Cherokee
Indian when I pointed the instrument
at him.
THE cATHEDRALs OF THE AN
DES.
have been over every scenic route
In the United States. l have Travelled
visited those parts OF Europe which
the world calls grand. I have climbed
the HimalayHs and have watched the
sun set on the mountains of north
China, but nowhere have l seen any
thing like the scenery OF the Andes. l
or more impressive than the Alps, the
Rockies or the Himalayas, but 1t sur
passes them in some respects, and Its
wonders are its own. Here the noun
tains rise almost abruptly upward.
You ride for miles between walls OK
rock. which kiss the sky thousands of
feet above you. Some of the rocks take
the shapes of gigantic c1thedrals, very
temples of the gods. their spires hidden
in the clouds. Others look like vast
Notifications, walls of rock to shut the
nations of the west away from the
riches of this great continent. There
are no pretty bits of scenery such as
you see in other mountains. Here all
Is on the grandest and most terrible
scale. In our ride along the sides of
these walls. Now We pierce them by
tunnel high up in the air. and higher
still see another tunnel which we shall
reach later on. We cross gorges in 60
ing from one tunnel Into another over
an iron network of n bridge which
looks awfully frail as the Favoritn
passes over 1t. We pierce a wall of
rock, where a river has been turned
aside that 1t may not interfere with the
road, and by a winding tunnel dash
out into what 1t called 1.-THE Infernillo"
or hell 1t Is n slender iron bridge two
miles above the sea, high up between
walls of rock. Far down below you
see waters rushing. and out OF the wall
we nave lelt IL bfesil toiTtiit VI lOalllinR
water plunges. Before us, at the other
end of the bridge, there Is another wall
of rock, In which there Is black hole
pierced by the track, and as we look
upward between these walls we see as
through n narrow slit the blue sky or
heaven above this Andean hell.
There are number of these hanging
bridges on the route. We stopped at
the Veruguas bridge. which spans n
chasm $50 feet long hanging to tunnels
300 feet above the Veruguas river. This
bridge was swept away some time ago
and for months both passengers aud
freight We're carried across on n cable,
the little car hanging to the rope
stretched from wall to wall across this
frightful ohasm. At times We saw
tunnels above and below us. The track
goes up its steepeRt places in a zigzas
route so that at one time we counted
five tracks running almost parallel be-
low us. Almost the whole line was
blasted out of the mountain rocks. On
many places along the line the hills are
so steep that men had to be lowered In
ropes over the edges of the preclpices
to drill holes for the powder which
blasted away the lodges for the track.
Falling rocks killed some landslides
swallowed up others and many died OF
fever.
ON THE HAND CAR.
You can imagine something of sem
setion of going down such road on
hand car. The reality is wilder and
more exciting than anything you can
.tKHA Nlaaa Ia ntaA an I