The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-15
of swhbacks in engine is climbing

and more abundant from there to the tops of the mountains At two miles and & half I found the Andes covered with a thin grass, and where I am now, at the beginning of the great plateau that is upheld by two of the ranges which run through Peru, there is plenty of feed for llamas and sheep Within the last three or four hours we have passed many wild flowers. At one place I encountered 40 varieties and from where I am sitting I can see buttercups without numbers and great yellow dandelions are looking at me through their yellow eyes out of the rocks.
 The greater part of the way up the mountains we were near to or high above the Rimac river. The valley narrows and widens. In some places you could jump from one side of 1t to the other. and again f is so wide that it would take half an hour to cross it. All along through the valley there are patches of crops. There are little fields of alfalfa. not as big as bed quilt. and terraces wnlch run step by step up the sides of the noun tains. all covered with green. Every bit of available land is used The stones are picked off and the walls are built round little patches of soil not as large as the hotel dining table.
 
 near the ocean, and there you cattle and sheep. There are some large fields with mud walls about them, and also haciendas with comfortable buildings.
 As we go further into the mountains the fields grow smaller and smaller All the farming Is by irrigation, and that in terraces where tho strips of cultivation are often only three or four feet in width. Nevertheless, these little farms run far up tue mountains. am told that 2. work flan fell cut of a field yesterday and rolled down 30 feet. About these terraces are he marks of other terraces which were onca used by the Incas. They tiled hundred acres where modern Peru tills one.
 All the way from the ocean to .he tops of the Andes we pa ssed towns and vil- lages At the sea is the port of callao, on one of the finest harhors of tho west coast. seTon miles further inland lies Che city of tho kings the Peruvian capi- tal oc Lima, and Going on up the valley. at an altitude of 5000 feet you stop at cosica, a summer resort, where a score Of pig Cholo women. clad in shcrt skirts and shaws and white Panama hats stand on the station platform, selling oranges at three cents apiece and an alligator pear that weighed pound for. n nickel. Higher still we came to the
 
 were all of ono story, the most of them being rude store huts thatched with straw The people do not build in the feldu. for tho land is too valuable there They huddle together out on the edges of the valley or on the rock places close to the river They go out to work on the terraces and patches Of soil, and you now and then sec them driving their 1laras loaded with burdens over tho trails, Here they are sherding sheep standing up and sr'nning wool as they ao so1 ond there her:dnr over digging the soil. They arc short ard copper colorcd and they look worked to death,
 We stopped at Matucana for dinner. being served with plates of soup con- taininE ehunks of meat as big as your list. and half dozen vegetables all stewed together We had also beef steak and eggs, and red strawberries fresh from the vines.
 Casapalca Is 13,600 feet high and the climb from there to Ticlio is more than 2o00 feet. Just below Ticlio is the Ga lera tunnel that goes through Mount Meis3s to the other slope of the moun- tains At that point you can see the streams flowing both ways. and can stand on one place and throw chips into waters that flow to the oceans l knew of this, and mad prepared two small bottles with messages in them. They were tightly corlSed I put ono in each stream and set them adrift One of those hotties fIosted away down the eastern side of the Andes It may reach the Ueayali, one of the tribu- taries of the Amazon and go on it's long voyage of 5000 or 1000 miles into the salt water of the Atlantic The other floated rapidly toward the Pa cific. It will soon reach the Rimac river and if it can withstand the rocks it will be at callao in something less than 10o-miie journey.
 its sides soon become Of an intense indigo hue till they are lost in shadow and beneath may he heard the de.-