The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-06-19
WRITES OF THE ANDES
DIR. MORGAN CLEMENTS DEsCRIBEs
 THE COUNTRY.
Interesting Letter to Montgomery Re- Intives from Former Alabamian who is Associated With south
 American Mining Company.

sided in Tuscaloosa have received an | Interesting letter from him describing the Andes of South America in which country he is travelling in the interest of mining company.
 1 The letter is written from Cerro de Pasco. Peru. pr. Clements says: Since I wrote you last have been kept pretty hard at moving, travelling and working over country on horse back The result has been that when | I had chance to stop I have spent most of my time eating and sleeping or else just resting and did not have the necessary energy to write to any one.
 After our first attempt to get up | into the Andes. which was a failure on account of the slides on the rail- road on account of the earthquake, we spent several days in Lima waiting for, the track to be cleared so that we could leave. The reports came in first that the track would be clear in a few days, then ten days and possibly not before two weeks. We finally got dis gusted with the delay and decided to go as far as we could by train and then take horses.
 During my stay in Lima was busy looking up maps and going owe, re- ports on the district I had com to study. However found time to walk around the city little. and 60 go to ] one of the bathing beaches, Barrancas. and get a swim in the Pacific.
 "One afternoon a party of us went to bull fight It has the usual thing six bulls killed. but in very bung- , ling way. The chief satisfaction which I got was in seeing one of the bulls get partly even by tossing one of the men. The man was only bruis- ed
 By March 9th we had made arr arrangements and started early that morning in a coach attached to a freight and work train. The morning was beautiful and cool, but the sun was shining brightly and the character of the morning and the buzzards hover ing around reminded me of our South.
 The train made very slow time. The paymaster had come with us and the train stopped frequently so that he could pay off people all along the road. About a. m. we reached Chosica, a small place In the foothills. This Is a health resort for Lima, but Is in disrepute just now because the bubonic plague is there. Here we had break | fast and then continued our journey, rising gradually to San Bartolome. Tho train could go no further so we took mules here and started on our ride up the valley. Below this place hills were barren but for clumps of cactus, and all of the valley even was not covered with grass or shrubs. From now on grass and flowers to thrive and the mills were green and very pretty. Cacti of many kinds continue, some of them with long arms hanging for twenty tance like a giant octopus.
 We pass through any amount of 1 heliotrope in shrubs four feet high and with clumps of flowers as large as a small fist. The heliotrope and other flowers perfupned the air but I hardly dared to pick any. the reason was that we were Just passing through what is known as the Verrugas belt. The verrugas is disease much dreaded by the people who have seen or heard of lit. Great warts come out over you and are very unsightly as well as dan gerous. A physician In Lima warned l me not to drink water or touch any thing as we passed through the belt as no one knew the cause of the disease and I had better be careful. ] follow ed his advice pretty closely, you may be sure.
 We met our first pack train of about fifty llamas, ungainly camel-like anil
 mals, but some of them prettily mark ed. Some are snow white, others
 brown and black. and of course all mixtures of them. The Indians seem
 to be proud of their llamas for they decorate many of them by tying bright lIy colored tape or wool in their ears or in tufts on the breast and neck, The leader of the train always wears a >l bell and has his ears decorated with streamers and very commonly bands of bright red wool wound all over the head so that from a distance one sees a peculiar red-headed beast leading the
 train.
 There are evidences all along this valley of the Rineac that 1t was at one
 time very densely populated. The mountain sides are terraced right up
 to the tops of the mountains. And the
 valley bottom has traces of houses and
 walls dividing the property every
 where. These ruins are from the time
 of the Incas when there were millions of the Indians in Peru where now there are probably only a few hundred thou sand.
 Lower down the valley communica- tion across the river is maintained by means of rope ferries. We had long since left them behind and now as the valley narrows the river gorge is cross ed by a swinging bridge supported by rope cables. Sticks of wood are laid across the cables and dirt on the wood. These bridges are used for man and beast. I did not look
 forward with any great amount of pleasure to crossing such bridge. For ! tunately higher up where we crossed | and recrossed the river the people had | used the steel rails from the railroad | or else long timbers so the bridges | were much more secure.
 | We reached the little village of Surco, almost deserted, at 1:15 p. m. | This is just on the upper edge of the | verruRas belt. We ate lunch standing | in the street while our muleteers were | in the tavern. People here are evident
 ly not very particular in some respects. | A stream of water is led in channel | through the centre of the main streets l-rock Is SO abundant that even the
 smaller villages have the streets paved with cobblestones-and I saw one wo- man washing in the water, while an l other one lower down was getting wa ter in a bucket out of the same chan mel.
 Peru is decidedly a Roman Catholic
 country. Everywhere one sees crosses Very commonly at crossroads and or
 main roads near a village there will be
 a shrine with large cross and on the cross everything pertaining or referr' ing to the crucihxion, such as cock on the top of the cross. a hammer
 nails, crown of thorns, spear. ladder , etc Everyone I have seen has alsC had three dice on 1t. At Surco the dice ? showed the two, five and six spot Al , ether places the numper of spots are : different Is there any biblical refer. , ence to these numbers?
 , We reached Matucana, about 6,00C