The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-06-14

the lake, and it is now being put on the railroad train that will take it from here to La Paz. On the wharves are stacks of Oregon pine. and our ship. the Yavari, is loaded with mining machinery and other goods for Bolivia The purse. of the boat tells me that the steamers always run full. and that during his last trip he carried 120.0o0 pounds of tin across to Puno on it's way to the sea- On our steamer we had rolls of paper from the United States for the dailies of the Bolivian capital, and also the boiler of a railroad locomotive destined for an interior railroad.
 The greater part of the freight of Be- livia is now going this way out to the ocean. The distance from La Paz to Mol lendo on the Pacific Is about 5g0 miles. and the passenger trip from one place to the other costs just s20. There is an ad- ditionai charge for the chair car from Moilcndo to Lake Titicaca. The trip can now be made very comfortably and with in considerably less than two days. Tie first stage Of the journey Is 10 Arequipa, whose altitude Is about that of Mexico City. Here oEs stays over night. The next stage Is an all-day ride, during V hich you cross pass alnlost three miles in height and then slide down to Lake Titicaca, where you are still over 12,soo feet above the sea The third stage is the trip across the lake. and the fourth is a four-hour ride over the high plateau of Bolivia to the great basin in which La Paz lies. I doubt whether there is a journey on earth that will show as great a variety of travel and so much magnificent scenery.
 Added to this is the side trip to Cuzco. That is one of the wonder tours of the age. It requires two or three days addi- tional, but 1t Is we'll worth it. and when our canal Is completed it will be under taken by thousands of American tourists.
 It seems strange to think of hunting and fishing in these bleak regions of the high Andes. Nevertheless, this is one of the game preserves of the continent l am told that there are millions of ducks that frequent these lakes. l saw thou sands from the deck of my steamer as rode across it. There were teal. snipe and mud hens, and several other va rieties of wild fowl. all so close that l could have shot them with my revolver. One of the chief hunting resorts is at the mouth of the Desaguadero river and I am told that the Americans who live in La Paz frequently go there to hunt, and that they bring back all the way from SC0 to 1SC0 ducks at one trip There is plenty of deer in the mountains near the lake and other fine hunting.
 Titicaca has some fish, but none game enough to attract sportsmen. MT. Horace G. Knowles, our former minister to Bo- 1ivia, has taken up the stocking of the lake with new varieties, and our fish commission expects to send here the spawn and young of some of our lake trout. whitfish and river salmon. The Bolivian government is interested in the matter, and it may be that these high waters will eventually be populated with the best of our finny tribes.
 As it is now Titicaca has two varieties that are especially fine. One is little fish with an oily flesh that is almost boneless. Another is somewhat like the sardine, ranging in size from six or eight inches to that of a whitebait This IS called the bogus, It runs in great schools and is caught by the Indians in nets, much like herring. These fish are cured by means of ovens built of the Ettie powders gathered from the shores of the lake. The ovens are bcated with the droppings of the llamas as fuel unh they are red hot. They are then thrown down and the fish are built up in layer of hot stones. First there is a layer of hot stones and then layer of fish. Next comes a second iayer of hot stones and then a second layer of fish. The pile goes on upward until the whole catch is one mass of steaming fish. After the fisf are thoroughly cured they are carried or the backs of llamas to La Paz and other faraway markets.
 The beats now used by the natives upon Lake Titicaca called balsas They are exactly the same as these whicf were here when the Spaniards conquered the country, shortly after Columbus dls covered America. They are made of cer' tain reeds that grow near the shores 1T the bed of the lake. These reeds reach height of 10 or 12 feet, and thickness of a mans finger. They are gathered by going out in boat and using lont pole to which a knife is, attached Ihl: is thrust down to the root Of the reed so that it cuts the reed free from ths bed of the lake The reeds are carried to the shore and there bound with strink' of long grass into rolls which are oftei 15 or 20 feet long. The rolls are sewet or tied together, forming the sides ane bottoms of the basas. These boats arr shaped like canoe. They have beau tiful curve. and their walls are s' formed that they extend out at the tol