RAILWAYS OVER THE ANDES.--FROM LIMA TO MOLLENDO, AREQUIPA, AND LAKE
TITICACA.--THE CHINCHA ISLANDS AND THE SODA DESERTS.--UP THE ANDES BY
STEAM.--IN A RAILWAY CARRIAGE FOURTEEN THOUSAND FEET ABOVE THE SEA.
Within the last twenty years Peru has made earnest efforts to connect
her inland cities with the Pacific Ocean by means of railways. There are
several private lines, the oldest being the short one connecting Lima
with Callao; it was completed in 1851, and has paid handsomely to its
projectors. Of the lines built by government there are seven in all;
five of them are finished and the remainder are in course of
construction (or suspension), with considerable uncertainty as to the
date of their completion.
One of the unfinished lines, the Oroya Railway, starts from Callao, and
is intended to connect that seaport with the silver mines of Cerro de
Pasco, by a branch from Oroya, and to extend to Fort San Ramon, or
Mairo, where it will connect with steamboats on the Amazon. It was
undertaken by an American contractor under government guarantee; it has
cost many millions of dollars, and many other millions will be required
before the locomotive can make the journey from Callao to Mairo and
Cerro de Pasco.
At the time our friends were in Lima the work was suspended, and Dr.
Bronson learned, in answer to his inquiries, that the terminus was at
an insignificant town among the mountains. Trains did not run regularly,
as there was no business to pay the expenses of running them; the
government was waiting for the country to recover from the effects of
the war before proceeding with the work.
One day there was an opportunity to make an excursion to the terminus,
about ninety miles from Lima, and the Doctor at once arranged for the
trip. They were to leave the capital about nine in the morning, spend
the night at the terminus, and return early the next day. The programme
was carried out to the satisfaction of the wandering trio, as we shall
see by referring to Fred's note-book.
[Illustration: DEEP CUTTING ON A RAILWAY.]
"We ascended the valley of the Rimac," said Fred, "and in the first
forty-six miles gained an elevation of five thousand feet. We had only
two carriages in the train, but the locomotive puffed and tugged as
though it was drawing three or four times that number. At every mile of
our advance the route became more and more intricate; we passed through
narrow gorges and along the brink of fearful precipices, and time and
time again we seemed to be in danger of toppling over and falling into
the abysses below. We were reminded of the passage of the Sierra Nevadas
by the Central Pacific Railway, in our own country, and of the line
between Colombo and Kandy, in Ceylon.
"The engineering difficulties here are greater than on either of the
routes I have mentioned, and greater than anything we have seen in the
European Alps. The Oroya line is certainly one of the railway wonders of
the world, and every visitor to Lima should make a point of seeing this
enormous work. It is doubtful if the government will ever find it
profitable, owing to the great cost of construction and the expense of
running the trains.
"Here are a few figures about this railway. I take some of them from
Professor Orton's book,'The Andes and Amazon,' and others have been
given me by the conductor who accompanies us.
"Eighty-seven miles of the road had been finished when the war between
Chili and Peru caused a suspension of work. There are sixty-three
tunnels, with an aggregate length of twenty-one thousand feet, and there
are thirty bridges of iron or stone. Some of the bridges are of French
or English manufacture, and others, considered the best, were made in
America. The Verrugas bridge spans a chasm five hundred and eighty feet
wide, and rests on three piers of hollow columns of wrought iron. It was
made at Phenixville, Pennsylvania, at a cost of $63,000; the middle pier
is two hundred and fifty-two feet high and fifty feet square at its
base, and the deflection of the bridge is five-eighths of an inch.
"The sharpest curve of the road is 395 feet radius, and the maximum
grade is four per cent. While the work was going on they used two
hundred and fifty tons of powder every month for blasting the rock! The
tunnel to carry the line through the Andes is at an elevation of 15,645
feet above the sea, the highest railway tunnel in the world, and some
say the highest point where a piston-rod is moved by steam.
[Illustration: AMONG THE FOOT-HILLS.]
"To describe our ride would be to give a long succession of exclamations
of wonder, admiration, and enthusiasm, with an occasional sigh of relief
when dangerous points were passed without accident. It is quite possible
that our cheeks may have paled at times and flushed at others, but of
course we could not admit anything of the sort. We were glad when the
terminus was reached, and the sensation of the journey was over.
"We crawled slowly upward on our eastward way and found it exciting
enough; what shall I say of the return ride, when we had the downward
grade to take us along, and the only use of the steam in the locomotive
was to hold us back? The brakes were screwed tightly down, and so great
is the pressure upon them that their shoes must be renewed at the end of
every second round trip from Callao and back again. In four hours from
the terminus we were on the shores of the Pacific, and at the end of a
journey we shall long remember."
Two weeks from the time our friends landed at Callao they embarked on
the southern-bound steamer from that port, having taken their tickets
for Mollendo.
[Illustration: GUANO ISLANDS.]
The first landing was at Pisco, about one hundred miles south of Callao,
and connected by a short line of railway with the cotton regions of Iça.
As they approached the port they passed the Chincha Islands, which have
become famous as the place whence millions of tons of guano have been
brought to Europe and America. Frank and Fred wished to know something
about the guano trade, and the Doctor kindly informed them.
[Illustration: SEA-BIRDS AT HOME.]
"The guano was deposited here," said Dr. Bronson, "by the sea-birds, and
the accumulations have been going on for thousands of years. No rain
falls here, and consequently there was no water to wash the substance
away. Mixed with the deposits of the birds were their decomposed bodies
and eggs, and the bodies of seals; the seals climb to the highest places
on the rocks when they are about to die, and as they were very abundant
here, it is safe to say that millions of them have died on the Chincha
Islands. Guano is of great value as a manure; the ancient Peruvians were
well aware of its qualities, and by the laws of the Incas everybody was
forbidden, under pain of death, to land on the islands during the
breeding season, and the same penalty was affixed to killing the birds
at any time.
"The guano deposits were first made known to Europe in 1804," the Doctor
continued, "through a description by Baron von Humboldt. He said the
islands were covered to a depth of fifty or sixty feet with pure guano;
the long ages that had been consumed in the accumulation may be
understood when he says that during the three centuries since the coming
of the Spaniards the growth had been only a small fraction of an inch!"
"Was it brought to Europe in Humboldt's time?" one of the youths
inquired.
"No," was the reply; "the first shipment was made in 1840, and consisted
of twenty barrels, which were taken to Liverpool. It was tried on a farm
near that city, and resulted so favorably that large orders were
immediately sent for more. In the following year several cargoes were
sent from the islands, and from that time the trade increased rapidly.
Farmers in Europe and America learned the value of guano in making a
wonderful increase of the producing power of their fields, and the
demand for it became general.
"From 1851 to 1860 nearly three million tons were shipped from the
Chincha Islands, and between 1853 and 1872 it is estimated that eight
millions tons were sent away. In that year the Chincha Islands were
practically exhausted. The Peruvians had acted as though they were to
last forever as a source of revenue, and the discovery of the great
value of the deposits may be considered the cause of the present
bankruptcy of the country. They had abolished the taxes and relied upon
the Chincha Islands for all money needed by government, including the
immense sums expended in the construction of railways. They appointed
agents in London and New York for the sale of the guano, and as long as
the business was prosperous, a great many men grew rich out of the
transactions.
"As the Chincha Islands gave out other deposits were worked, some on the
Lobos Islands, others on the Guanape Islands, and others in Tarapaca,
but none of them are as rich or extensive as was the original source of
supply."
The youths looked carefully at the islands with their glasses as the
steamer proceeded on her course. Dr. Bronson called their attention to a
solitary ship that was lying close to the cliff of one of the islands,
and said that in the days of the prosperity of the guano trade there
were sometimes a hundred ships receiving cargoes or waiting their turns
to be laden.
"You observe," said he, "that the sides of the islands are quite bold,
and in some places precipitous; ships used to lie close to the shore and
receive their cargoes through long chutes or spouts through which the
guano was poured from the top of the cliff. The air was full of guano
dust, and the men engaged in the work suffered greatly from the dust
entering the throat and lungs. Ammonia (hartshorn) is an important
ingredient of guano; imagine yourselves breathing an atmosphere heavily
charged with ammonia, and you can realize the disagreeable features of
working on a guano island.
[Illustration: SCENE ON A COOLIE SHIP.]
"Convicts were employed here, and also coolies from China; the horrors
of the coolie trade with Peru have never been fully told, and the
narration would be most sickening. Thousands of the coolies threw
themselves into the sea to escape the terrible life on these islands;
other thousands died here as a result of their toil, and the number was
only kept up by frequent arrivals of ships from Macao, the seat of the
coolie trade in China."
"There are three islands," said Fred, "but they do not seem to be large
ones. I should judge that the most northerly is the largest, and it is
not more than half a mile long by a third in width."
"You have estimated very well," was the reply. "The northern island is
called Chincha, and gives the name to the group, and it is about the
length and width you mention. The other two are smaller, but are of the
same formation as Chincha, a bright red granite composed of red
feldspar, white quartz, and a little mica. The group is evidently of
volcanic origin, and perhaps it may one day disappear beneath the waves
as other volcanic islands have done.
"Guano can only accumulate where there is no rain," continued their
mentor, "and there is another source of wealth here that comes from the
rainless district."
"What is that?"
"It is the nitrate of soda," answered the Doctor, "which comes from
several desert regions in the southern part of Peru, chiefly in the
province of Tarapaca, which has been annexed to Chili since the war, and
is Peruvian territory no longer. It has many uses in industrial arts,
and is largely employed as a fertilizer; the deposits have been worked
since 1830, and the chief points of export are Iquique and Pisagua. In
twenty years from 1830 the exports were 240,000 tons, and in 1875 no
less than 326,000 tons were exported. In 1877 there were 253 ships that
cleared from Iquique alone with cargoes of nitrates. Several of the
railways constructed by the Peruvian government, or on private account,
were built partly or wholly for the transportation of this article."
The steamer stopped very briefly at Pisco, and there was not time to go
on shore. From Pisco to Mollendo they were almost constantly in sight of
the coast, and sometimes hugging it closely; the mountains of the
western cordillera of the Andes filled the eastern horizon, and
occasionally the snowy peaks of the great central chain were visible.
The principal chain of mountains in South America is called the Andes,
and sometimes the _Nevadas_ (white), to distinguish it from the
cordillera (cor-de-_yer_-ra), by which the lateral and lower chains,
generally parallel to the Andes, are designated. _Sierra_ (from the
Spanish word for saw) is a spur, or irregular line, of mountains
stretching from the Andes to the cordillera, or pushing out from the
latter into the flat _Parama_, or desert.
[Illustration: ON THE EDGE OF THE DESERT.]
Mollendo is the ocean terminus of the railway to Arequipa and Lake
Titicaca, the present destination of the boy travellers and their elder
companion. The town is on the edge of the desert, and the harbor is an
open roadstead, like most of the ports of the western coast. An old
captain sarcastically remarked, "the harbor of Mollendo is entered as
soon as the ship turns Cape Horn." The town is supplied with water by an
iron pipe eighty-five miles long, which starts from near Arequipa, and
is capable of discharging 430,000 gallons of water every twenty-four
hours. Enormous tanks have been constructed, to maintain a supply for
several days, in case of accident to the aqueduct, and these tanks are
the principal sights of the place.
The surf was breaking on the rocky shore, and our friends had a narrow
escape from a drenching in going from the ship to the land. Fortunately
they arrived in the morning, about an hour before the time for the
departure of the train for Arequipa, and had not long to wait.
The railway followed the coast for a short distance, and then turned
northeastwardly, and began climbing the hills which formed the outward
barrier of the lofty Andes. Up and onward zigzagged the train, through
the barren hills that lead to the desert of Islay, and then out upon the
dusty stretch of the desert, which it crossed in a line whose directness
was in marked contrast to its tortuous course among the hills. At
regular intervals there were tanks which supply the locomotives with
water; they are fed from the aqueduct already mentioned, and wherever
they have leaked, and moistened the dust, the grass grows luxuriantly.
It is sixty miles across the desert; before the railway was constructed
the journey was made on the backs of donkeys, and it was customary to
cross it in the night, in consequence of the great heat and glare when
the sun is shining.
Frank copied into his note-book the following account of a traveller who
crossed the desert from the coast to Arequipa, which he failed to reach
before sunrise:
"About five o'clock a clear whiteness appeared in the sky, the stars
paled their lustre, and the day began to break. Soon a ruddy orange tint
spread over the soil of the pampa, now become firm and compact. In a few
minutes the disk of the sun appeared above the horizon; and as we
marched full in the front of the god of day, we found ourselves in the
midst of a luminous torrent, which so dazzled and incommoded us that to
escape from this new torture we doubled ourselves up like hedgehogs.
This anomalous and inconvenient posture rendered us unjust to the claims
of the rising sun. Instead of welcoming his appearance we were inclined
to wish he had remained out of sight, and it was not till eight o'clock
that the sun, now high above the horizon, permitted us to raise our
heads."
[Illustration: INDIANS OF AREQUIPA.]
"We did not suffer any of this inconvenience," said Frank, in his
description of the journey, "as we were protected by the carriages, and
could take any position we liked. When the sun passed the meridian we
could look ahead without receiving the glare in our eyes; it was a great
relief when we saw the peaks of the snow-clad mountains, and in a little
while the eastern horizon was filled with them. Back of Arequipa was the
lofty summit of Misti, one of the grandest of the South American
volcanoes, then came Chichani, with its precipitous sides, and beyond
it, farther to the north, was Coropuno.
[Illustration: AREQUIPA, AND THE VOLCANO OF MISTI.]
"As we entered Arequipa ('Place of Rest') we thought of Damascus, to
which it has been compared by more than one traveller. Like Damascus, it
stands on the edge of the desert, and, also like that Oriental city, it
is watered by a river which nourishes its gardens, and creates a spot of
living green in the midst of an arid waste. It stands in a valley ten
miles long by five in width, but all around the valley is a desert.
There is not sufficient water for purposes of irrigation; land that is
well irrigated is worth a thousand dollars an acre, as it is wonderfully
fertile and produces abundantly.
"We spent a day in Arequipa, which was a station under the Inca
government before the city was founded by Pizarro, in 1540. At every
step we saw traces of the terrible havoc wrought by the earthquake of
1868; there was not a block without its pile of ruins, and some of the
streets reminded us of Pompeii, or of Old Delhi. Churches were reduced
to a mass of rubbish, the towers of the cathedral were demolished, the
university was a heap of ruins, and hundreds of the houses were still
unoccupied.
"According to the accounts written at the time, the first shock of the
earthquake was felt about five o'clock in the afternoon. There was a
slight tremor of the ground, which increased at intervals of fifteen or
twenty seconds; it was not until fully a minute after the first shock
that the buildings began to fall, and consequently the inhabitants had
time to escape to the streets. Compared with Ibarra and other cities,
the loss of life was small. The sick in the hospital and prisoners in
the _carcel_ were unable to flee, and were buried in the falling ruins,
and it was estimated that about three hundred others were killed. Before
the earthquake the city had a population of not far from fifty thousand;
it is now estimated at forty thousand, with the probability of an
increase to the old figure in consequence of the revival of commerce by
the opening of the railway.
"Our attention was drawn to the use of galvanized iron for the domes of
the buildings in place of stone, which was the material formerly
employed. It is thought the next earthquake will have less effect than
former ones, since iron can withstand what stone cannot. There is a
great scarcity of wood here, or it would be popular in the construction
of houses. Wooden houses can hold out against earthquakes better than
those of more solid materials, as they can be twisted a great deal
before falling. The best material I have ever seen for this purpose is a
network of bamboo, plastered on both sides to fill the chinks between
the poles and withes.
[Illustration: THE OLD WAY OF TRAVEL.]
"We asked for the manufactures of Arequipa, but we asked in vain. There
was formerly a considerable commerce with the interior, but at present
there are no industries beyond the trade in alpaca wool which is the
support of the city. There are only a few mercantile houses, and these
are mostly German or English, and the chief occupation of the
inhabitants is to do nothing. We saw only two men displaying anything
like activity; they had quarrelled, and one was pursuing the other with
a knife in his hand, but though he ran fast he did not overtake his
intended victim.
"The altitude of Arequipa is 7650 feet above the sea; the summit of
Misti, a most picturesque volcano, rises behind the city to a height of
18,500 feet, very much as Etna rises behind Catania. It is now silent,
but it was fearfully active in 1868, and is liable again to burst forth
as the accompaniment of another earthquake.
"The population is as uncertain, politically and socially, as the ground
on which their city stands, if we may judge by the frequency with which
they indulge in revolutions and insurrections. In three hundred years
there have been ten or twelve severe earthquakes and innumerable smaller
shocks; in the same time there have been at least a dozen revolts, while
plots against the peace and dignity of the state are said to be
constantly going on. In 1867 the city was bombarded for three days by
the president of the republic, who failed to capture it, and it has
several times been shaken by war as well as by earthquakes."
[Illustration: VIEW OF LAKE TITICACA.]
After their day in this famous city our friends started by railway for
Punno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca, two hundred and eighteen miles
away. Crossing an iron bridge as it left the city, the train soon began
to ascend among the desert hills, and through masses of volcanic rock
and cinders which gave plain proof that the mighty Chichani had not
always been as quiet as at present. Dr. Bronson called the attention of
the youths to the magnificent engineering, and the conductor informed
them that on this one division of the road the excavations and fillings
amounted to ten millions of cubic yards. "They are said to be the
deepest cuttings and fillings in the world," said he, "and I certainly
have never heard any one say they were not. The deepest cutting is one
hundred and twenty-seven feet, and the deepest filling one hundred and
forty-one."
"And bear in mind," said the Doctor, "that this work was performed far
up in the mountains, where exertion is very fatiguing, and water boils
before it is much more than scalding hot. Beans and other articles of
food can only be cooked in closed cans to increase the pressure, and
consequently the temperature."
On and up they went among the mountains, and over the dreary pampas
stretching between them, crossing deep ravines, winding around
precipices, threading the valleys, darting through tunnels, now on a
level with the banks of snow on the sides of the giant mountains, or
looking down upon the clouds that rolled at their feet. Ten, twelve,
thirteen, and fourteen thousand feet of elevation were reached, and at
length they halted at Vincamayo, 14,443 feet above the level of the sea.
It is the creation of the railway, with an American hotel, and all the
adjuncts of a relay and repairing station. It is the highest village in
the world, higher than famous Potosi, and higher, too, than Cerro de
Pasco. Place another Mount Washington on the top of the present one, and
its summit would be nearly two thousand feet lower than Vincamayo.
Professor Orton passed a night at Vincamayo; he says he did not sleep,
but spent the time in panting for breath. Our friends had the same
experience with the rarefied air; the least movement caused them to
breathe with difficulty, and they wisely refrained from stirring from
their places. In a little while the train reached Alto del Crucero, the
highest point of the line, and 14,660 feet above the Pacific at
Mollendo. The surrounding land was simply a bog covered with short
grass, and sprinkled in places with snow. It affords pasture for alpacas
and vicunas, and as they looked from the windows of the carriage and
shivered in the chilly atmosphere they saw numerous herds of these
animals feeding on the plain.
[Illustration: THE NEVADA DE SORATA, CROWN OF THE ANDES.]
From the summit the descent was gradual, among hills and over desert
plains, passing between two lakes of brackish water, and along the banks
of a river that had its source among the clouds. By and by the waters of
Lake Titicaca were in sight, and beyond them rose the grand old peak of
the Nevada de Sorata, sometimes called "the crown of the Andes."
The train ended its journey at Puno, on the shore of the lake, and the
three travellers stepped again to the earth, with more than twelve
thousand feet of perpendicular distance below them to the level of the
sea!