THE MAP OF THE CHOQUEQUIRAU DISTRICT, DRAWN BY M. ANGRAUD

Though the map drawn by M. Angraud July 1847 has many errors and omissions, yet it was valuable aid in reaching Choquequirau, not so much because of the idea it gave of the country which must be passed over, or even correct directions, but it gave certain landmarks in the shape of terraces and streams which were identifiable and showed that we were on the right track.

The most serious error is that embodied in the direction arrow. This is an error of some 170° in the directions, evidently due to reading the wrong end of an inaccurate compass. This error would have made the whole map valueless if it had not been detected and pointed out to me by Dr. Bingham before I started on my journey.

The error of next size, is the course of the Apurimac.
According to this map the river forms a great bow, flowing West at the upper end and South at the lower end. There is a curve there, but in the map it is much exaggerated, the main direction of the river really remaining East and West.

A third disturbing element was the fact that he called the main stream he followed the "Torrent de Cocambilla." Questioning the natives failed to reveal any authority for such a name, the river designated being the Amaru.

A fourth fault is the lack of any true scale. He designated 1/2 league by a line, but this was just an estimate and the estimate being necessarily based more or less on time spent in traversing a distance, was wrong, some parts of the map being exaggerated and other parts being diminished.

A fifth fault is the fact that the lines he drew to represent

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land forms are absolutely uninteligible unless one has seen the
land. Then they are easily translated as follows:

The long lines, running for the most part southwest, all
represent sharp ridges, the shorter lines adjoining them being
meant to show cliff faces. The domed, curved lines at K. were
meant to show the outline of the peak which he called " pic
inferieur." The irregular curved lines seem in most instances
to be meant to represent woods.

The noticeable omissions are mainly at Choquequirau, itself.
Apparently did not see the group of buildings in what
Dr. Bingham called the upper plaza, or the one house yet higher
on the ridge, apparently passing below them.

The only unjustifiable errors are the faulty direction arrow
and the course given the Apurimac.

CHOQUEQUIRAU.

Choquequirau lies 6.7 miles as the crow flies a
little west of south of Yanama on the height over looking the
Apurimac river, in one of the most inaccessible spots I saw
during my stay in Peru. There are two routes by which it may
be reached, with only one of which I am familiar. By this route,
one goes from Cuzco down the Urubamba river to the hacienda of
Huadquina which is owned by Sra. Carmen Vargas. There turning
south along the Rio Andiquila, one keeps to its valley until it
heads in a high snow range. This range must be crossed. There
is a very good trail over the pass. Then dropping into the head
of the Aobamba Valley one follows it down to the little hacienda
of Yanama, which is, so far as I know, the closest settlement on
the east side of the Apurimac River to Choquequirau. From
Yanama there are two routes that may be followed. One is bad.
The other is very bad. On the first, you climb the high ridge S. W.
of Yanama, crossing about S46 degrees W. and keeping on its south
side go through grass land and tangled jungle, past a peak which
I called Sharps Preferred, and down a bad slope to the Amaru river.
The Amaru is followed to a point about a quarter of a mile below
a good sized stream coming in from the east. There is a little
spring at the foot of the bank here. Here one leaves the Amaru,
climbing the bank by means of "gradillas" or steps cut in, and
following a draw up to a flat grassy pampa of one or two acres.
From here one can notice a line of cliffs on the hill ahead of him
and one place where there is a break and a grove of trees passes
up through. There the cliffs may be passed. Also there is a

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spring and some good Inca terraces. From the spring one follows
the right hand branch of the draw in which it occurs to a point
where there is a huge boulder. At this point earth terraces are
met with, and from here on the whole mountain side is terraced.
The ridge ahead presents a profile like Fig. 1. and the dotted

line is the course to take, following
the ridge after reaching crest until
you can turn down the S. side of the
mountain. Then one follows the mountain
side past the heads of several canons
until the ridge is reached on which one
can see a bare leveled place. In order

to gain this ridge it is necessary to climb high toward the crest
of the mountain on account of the cliffs which bar the way lower
down. The bare leveled place is a part of the works of Choquequirau,
and to reach the city one has only to follow down the ridge.

Anyone going in should carry water from the last spring mentioned
for there is no water at Choquequirau. The nearest I could find
was that which one can see in a waterfall a few points north of
east from the town, and it is a day's work to cut a trail to it.

The ruins at Choquequirau itself are not remarkable.
There is a great extent of terraced surface, and a few good sized
buildings, but most of the houses were small, one roomed affairs.
One of the most remarkable things to my mind is their old water
system by which they took water from high up on the stream mentioned,
and brought it around the side of the mountain and along the sharp
crest of the ridge. That is really quite notable.

On the north side of the mountain there was a great deal
of work done, the whole mountain side being terraced for cultivation.

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A few of the terraces were faced with stone, but most of them
are just earth. There are remains of one roomed houses, and many
broken sherds, and it would not be surprising if quite a large
town were located somewhere on the slope? The Inca approach to
Choquequirau followed much the route I took. Their road is mostly
obliterated now but on the north side of the mountain it shows up,
cobbled, and with steps at the steeper parts. It descended to the
Amaru at a point where there is now a sheer bluff of over 100
feet in an old glacial stream deposit. They had evidently cut
into the side of this cliff to give their road passage. Again
on the mountain south of Yanama their work shows up for they tapped
a glacial lake at an altitude of about 16,000 feet and conducted
its waters along a ridge which in places they had to build up
10-12 feet, to an altitude of about 12,000 feet. The object was
not apparent to me though they might have had placers.

The country between Choquequirau and yanama is very
rough, the mountains being high and steep, which of course means
deep valleys between them. There are many bare cliff faces and
rock pinacles, but except on the very tops of the ridges and high
on the mountains, the slopes will generally hold enough soil to
support vegetation. Even many of the cliff faces are covered with
moss which finally gathers earth enough to allow small plants to
root themselves. The general color of the landscape between Yanama
and Choquequirau then is green. On the higher points, however,
where the frost stays most of the day, there are no trees but long
bunch grass and many stemless flowers growing flat on the ground.
In the valley above Yanama there are very few trees the slopes
being grass covered but otherwise quite bare. The valley which
leads down to Huadquina is heavily wooded but the majority of the

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trees are rather small.

Around Yanama very little land is cultivated, the only
crop being potatoes. These grow well in the high cold lands,
being small but of fine quality. The principle products of the
valley are cattle, sheep, wool, and hides and even of these there
is no great output.

The country around Yanama is rather interesting mineralogically. The country rock was originally a granite and now varies from a fine grained gneiss to a clear mica schist. There are occasional spots where the original granite persists unmetamorphosed. This country rock carries a great number of mineral veins, some of them quite large. The gangue in these veins is almost invariably quartz, the mineral being galena, which carries silver. I also saw one vein which for a dozen feet in, as far as it had been explored, was cerrusite. This was the only one I saw with any PbCO3. Just why it should be so I had not time to work out. The mines in this valley were originally worked by the Jesuit fathers but since their expulsion no one has touched them.

The glacier work in this country is very fine. There
are still many large glaciers high on the mountains, but there are
abundant evidences in the shape of moraines and hanging valleys
that the ice has come down a great deal further. The valleys in
this region are deep and steep, the slope of the sides seldom being
under 45 degrees. For their length these valleys carry very large
streams due to the great supplies of melting ice and snow. In the
lower part of the Amaru valley there are great glacial stream
deposits, in some places hundreds of feet thick which after laying
down and hardening have been cut by the streams leaving vertical or
nearly vertical banks one to two hundred feet in height.

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Work in the lower Amaru valley is very trying, due to the swarms of small green jungle flies, which bite fiercely leaving a blood blister at every spot they light. On climbing the slopes almost to timber line, the flies leave, but their place is taken by gnats and mosquitoes. The only larger carnivorous seen on our trips were bears of which there are many. There are also wild cats and possibly jaguars. Deer are said to be plentiful although we saw none. There are many birds which one may hear but seldom see. Parrots and parakuts, bustards, partridges, pheasants, turkeys, pigeons, doves, and many small birds besides the ever present condors and hawks.

The work which was done by the expedition was 1. A route map made from Huadquina to Yanama, and from there to Choquequirau. 2L Three trips made to Choquequirau, two for the purpose of making a trail to the city, and a third for exploration in the shape of grave digging.

The route map from Huadquina to Yanama was made very simply by taking compass shots along the path and getting distances by counting the horses steps. From Yanama to Choquequirau the route was plotted by a series of shots on prominent points, and triangulation. There was also some mapping done in the immediate vicinity of Choquequirau which was done mainly by triangulation aided by some barometer work.

The first trip into the Inca city was started on Aug. 1 and took nine days. The party consisted of a soldier, Tomas Cobines, a boy, Marcelina Huaman, and three peons beside myself. This was the hardest trip as nothing was known of what was ahead, the location of Choquequirau being largely a matter for guesswork. The route followed was not the one described earlier, but the harder one.

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On it we followed the road from Ŷanama to Arma to a point where it swings to leave the Amaru valley. This was a half days trip and as we had had a late start we camped there. Next morning, dropping to the Amaru valley, we put in a day of fording and refording the stream, and climbing over boulders. The next day we continued on down stream, having to cross it only twice. One place was a ford, and at the other we made a bridge. Passing the stream coming in from the east, the rest of the trip was done along the route described earlier, and our return was made by that route. On this trip, we made a trail but it was a very hard one.

Starting in again on Aug. 16 we reached Choquequirau in 2 2/3 days. The party this time was the same as before except that the peons were new ones. At Choquequirau we made a trail to water, which we had not been able to reach before, and also cut several paths through the jungle in search of graves. On the return trip a good deal of work was put on the trail, and time was spent looking for a shorter and easier route, but without success. This trip took ten days, the return being accomplished in 2 2/3 days.

The third trip was started on Aug. 30. The party this time was Dr. Eaton, Dr. Nelson, Carlos Duque, and myself besides Tomas, Marcelino, an arriero, Santos Garcia, and six peons. On this trip no trail clearing was done and we reached Choquequirau in three days. There we put in four days excavating and surveying, before running out of food and having to start back. The last trip was the record one, Yanama being reached in a little under two days. After a day spent in getting our outfit together we went to Huadquina, and from there to Cuzco.

CHOQUEQUIRA.

On Sunday, July 28, early in the morning, I reached Huadquina, the "hacienda" of Senora Carmen Vargas and the point where I was to leave the Urubamba valley on my way to Choquequirau. With men were the soldier Tomas, the boy, Marcelino, Marcos--the best arriero in the employ of the expedition, and four peons.

Huadquina, which is one of the largest fincas in Peru, reaches from the Urubamba to the Apurimac river, a distance of about 40 miles measured in a straight line, and is supposed to be nine miles wide, though many claim that by the original grant the width is 21 miles. On it live over 5000 Indians all of them practically owned by the hacienda owner. He must pay them when they work, and cannot stop their running away if they are not in debt to him, but at his summons they have to come out and work, and of their produce he gets a large part. They must comport themselves as he ordains and cannot sell even the produce of their own gardens except with his permission. The hacenderos all denied this, but I found that it was true. When moving away from a finca I usually had no trouble in buying fruit, poultry, etc. If I were going toward it, however, the Indinas never had anything they could sell, and my men told me repeatedly that if they did try to do so without the consent of the owner, that they were liable to have their land which they cultivated taken from them, and have no chance at all to earn money with which to buy coca and chicha, except by hiring out as day laborers, which is something most of them seem to abhor doing. In fairness to the hacenderos I must say that at all the places I stopped the peons had as good treatment as they deserved.

The establishment at Huadquina is, for Peru, very elaborate. They have a large living house with a splendid "corridor" or porch along the front; offices, cane mill with vats and machinery for

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making sugar, distillery, where "aguardiente" is made from cane juice, blacksmith and carpenter shops, and a kien for making tiles. Also large houses for the laborers. The main revenue of the place is derived from the sale of the sugar and aguardiente, particularly the latter. On my arrival I was welcomed by Sra. Vargas, the owner. She presented me to Sr. Almitur, her son-in-law, and his wife. Also to her manager Sr. Arteta y Rios. Her two younger daughters, girls of 15 and 17, she did not present, fearing perhaps that I might entertain designs against her fortune. I did not feel impelled to tell her that it would take a tremendous one to make me look more than once at the younger members in her family, and that the true reason I never took out my watch in their presence was for fear the hands would immediately stop and start revolving the wrong way.

The day I reached this hacienda was the national birthday and there were some sports in its honor. These came off in the afternoon. They were preluded by the band, composed of two fifes and a drum, rendering several times the Quichua national anthem. Then a free drink was given to everyone in the crowd. Following this there were some foot races which if not up to the standard set by American athletes, were fully as interesting to watch. After this the aristocracy threw five cent pieces into the crowd, laughing tremendously at the resultant scromble. This was followed by a high jumping exhibition. The manner of it was; a mold of "Chancaca" (brown sugar) was tied to a string which in turn was tied to a rope strung over two poles. This rope was manipulated by an operator whose duty it was to see that the "chaucaca" gave a jump at the same time a man did. This exhilarating field sport was the center of interest for some time, and then the great feature came

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on. This was the bull fight. In this case the bull was a lean
black cow. As her horns were sharp, she was first tied and the
tips were cut off. Anyone was allowed to be a bullfighter, and the
peons swarmed into the inclosure, waving their ponchos and shouting.
The cow, wild with fright, made desperate efforts to get away,
charging at everything that looked like it might be a way out, and
incontinently running away from the valiant bullfighters unless they
had a ring completely around her. Soon after the "fight" started
an old man, hat in hand, approached Senora Vargas. He requested
this feature of the fiesta might be stopped but as the only ground he
had for the request was the fact that the cow belonged to him, of
course he could not be taken seriously. The fight was finally ended
by the animal backing into a corner and refusing to move out.

The next morning I was up early getting the pack train off. I
myself waited several hours as Sr. Alvistur had said that Dr.
Bingham was coming that morning and I thought perhaps he would have
new orders or suggestions for me. The information proved wrong however,
so after getting a letter from Sr. Artita commanding the mayordomo
at Yanama to give me all the help in his power, I started on the
trail after the mule train. One league out I was joined by one of

Sra. Vargas' mayordomos who was going about half way to Yanama
to a spot called Culpapampa where they were burning lime. This
was fortunate as having sent all my men ahead, I did not know the
trail. Also it gave me someone who could tell me about the country
through which we passed. This last was very pretty. The valley
walls were high and steep, but the bottom was wide and there were
many plantations of cane, banana, and alligator pear. As we went along
following the valley we naturally kept rising however, and after
about eight miles there were no more bananas or cane. Instead,