over 4,000,000 quintals; but were the senseless restriction on its exportation (25 cents per quintal) removed, the quantity would be tripled. The demand is on the increase, yet the supply exceeds the demand. It is mainly exported from Iquique, where the price is about $2 50 a quintal; in Liverpool, £16 a ton. Mixed with guano, saliter (or "caliche," as it is called in the crude state) is the best compost for cereals. In the deposit at La Peña Grande, fossil birds, with a flamingo-like bill, have been discovered nine feet below the surface. Water is found in these pampas 180 feet below the surface. In this same region there is an abundance of borax and nitre; but they are scantily worked. SUGAR. In many respects, this is the most important production of Peru. All along the coast, wherever the land is watered by streams or irrigation, the cane grows luxuriantly (from fifteen to twenty feet), and yields 85 per cent. of juice, having 12° or 15° Baumé. The green and ripe are seen in the same field; men are cutting at one end, and planting at the other. The cane requires replanting but once in ten years, and gives a crop every fourteen months. On large plantations, the manufacture of sugar continues all the year round. It is exported mainly from Eten (12,000 tons annually)- the richest agricultural region in Northern Peru - Pacasmáyo (800 tons), Malabrigo, Huancháco, Chancáy, and Pisco. The bulk goes to Europe to be refined, under the name of chancáca, or rapidúra. A superior quality is grown in the interior, at Abancay, which is sent to Bolivia. The annual yield of sugar and spirits together, in all Peru, is estimated at 20,000,000 soles. COFFEE.-A small quantity is produced at Guadalupe, near Pacasmáyo, which is second to none in richness of flavor. Its excellence is due to the fact that it is grown PRODUCTIONS OF PERU. 437 This "Goybu in the shade, and with the greatest care. rú" coffee, as it is called, brings 50 cents a pound at the hacienda. A very choice article (valued at $1 a pound) is made by selecting the smallest Goyburú; but it is not in the market. Fine coffee grows also at Huánuco and Urubamba. COTTON.-A very fine article, next to sea-island, has been grown at Pacasmáyo; but the yield, only 50 or 60 pounds to the acre, is not encouraging. It suffers from mildew. The points from which cotton is exported are Pacasmáyo (100,000 pounds), Payta (coming from Piura), Eten, Chancay, Lomas, and especially Pisco (grown in the rich val leys of Iça). A beautiful, silk-like cotton is grown in the valley of Santa Ana. At Arica, cotton is worth $36 a quintal. RICE is now imported from China direct, and from India via England, so that little is raised. The usual yield is 200 fold. Its production is nearly confined to Eten, Pacasmáyo, and Huanchaco. CORN is universally cultivated in the mountain valleys, though not on a large scale, and forms the staple food of the Indians. A prime article, quite different from the short, party-colored ears on the highlands, is grown, to some extent, on the coast; 700,000 pounds passed through the custom-house of Pacasmayo in 1872. CACAO, of the best quality, comes from the Department of Cuzco, especially from the hacienda of Echarati. It brings $6 an arroba in Cuzco, and 60 cents per pound in Lima, or double the price of the Guayaquil. A small quantity is manufactured at Cajamárca. FRUIT.—The province of Moquegua is the Bordeaux of Peru; and a large amount of rum and wines are exported from Pisco. The "Italia" is the leading brandy. Ordinary "Pisco" is worth $1 a bottle; "Locumba," $2. Or anges, lemons, melons, and olives are grown along the southern coast. The olives of Ilo, and the raisins of Pica will compare with those of Seville and Malaga. TOBACCO. This grows luxuriantly at Eten and Pacasmáyo, sometimes standing eight feet high, with leaves four feet long. It is sent chiefly to Chile. Pacasmáyo exported 100,000 pounds in 1873. Tobacco is also grown along the Urubamba and Utcubamba. COCA is almost confined to the Urubamba province, and is not exported from the coast, as it is consumed in Cuzco, Puno, and Arequipa. It is considered inferior to the coca of Yungas, Bolivia. CASCARILLA BARK.---Less and less of this is exported every year, as the hunters have to go farther and farther into the interior for it. The greater part now goes down the Amazons from Bolivia. It is shipped from Payta (coming from Loja), Pacasmáyo (coming through Cajamárca, nearly 200,000 pounds in 1873), Islay, and Arica (coming from the Bolivian forests of Munecas, Apolobamba, Yuracares, Larecaja, Inquisivi, Apopaya, and the Yungas of La Paz. At Arica, it is worth $90 a quintal. WOOL.-After guano and sugar, alpaca is the great export. The annual product is about 45,000 bales. It comes almost entirely from the departments of Puno and Cuzco; and the outlets are Pisco, Islay, Mollendo, and Arica. But Arequipa is the great centre of the alpaca trade. Such is the reputation of the Arequipa brand that the wool is generally taken to that city from other points to be re-assorted and repacked. The alpacas thrive best in the black, almost barren, boggy lands from 13,000 to 14,000 feet in elevation. Shearing-time begins December 15; but an individual is sheared only once in two or three years. A fleece of three years is of course the largest, and commands the best price. It is now worth in Arequipa EXPORTS OF PERU. 439 $70 a quintal. Vicuña wool brings $100 a quintal; but little is exported. The sheep's wool of Peru ("cholo") is of middling quality, inferior to the "mestizo" of the Argentine Republic. It brings twelvepence in England. It is exported (20,000 quintals a year) from Arica and Islay. About 4000 goat-skins are exported annually to the United States from Payta, and a few chinchilla-skins from Arica. SILK.-Peru is admirably adapted for the cultivation of the mulberry and the castor-oil plant, and the two species of silk-worm which feed upon them. Three, four, and even five crops of eggs could be produced annually. MINERALS.—Arica, being the main port of Bolivia, ships the most metal, especially bar silver (at $12 04 per mark), copper barilla or powdered ore (at $18 a quintal of 70 per cent.), and tin barilla (at $19 a quintal of 70 per cent.). Cinnabar abounds at Huancavelica and Chonta in a jurassic slate and sandstone. Pacasmáyo and Chimbote will ere long export considerable silver ore and bituminous coal, the latter having been discovered of excellent quality and in large quantity near the line of the Chimbote Railroad. Coal occurs also near Arequipa (Sumbay), near Pisco, and on the Oroya Railroad, the last resembling Rhode Island anthracite. The want of coal and wood has prevented the smelting of ores to any extent in the country hitherto. An English firm has lately established a furnace on the island of San Lorenzo, opposite Callao. Iron ore is abundant in Jauja, Cuzco, and Puno. Besides these exports, Tumbez yields petroleum; Huanchaco, starch; Quilca, olives; and Amotape (near Payta), cochineal. Orchilla (or archil) was formerly sent from Payta; but a better article has recently been found on an island off Mexico. In times of scarcity it is worth $5000 a ton. CHAPTER XXXIII. The Silver-mines of Peru: Cerro de Pasco.-Hualgayoc.-Puno.-Chilete.-Ancachs. PERU was conquered and explored by the early Spaniards under the belief that it was El Dorado; but there are no famous mines of gold in the republic save those of Carabaya.* It better deserves the name of La Plata, for its Andes are threaded with silver. The annual yield of Peruvian silver, however, is decreasing, owing to mismanagement. A thorough scientific survey of the country is needed, and then a judicious system of mining. We are confident this will reveal "Rocks rich in gems and mountains big with mines, The most famous silver-mines in South America, after those of Potosí, are the mines of Cerro de Pasco, sixty leagues northeast of Lima. They are situated on the Atlantic slope of the Andes, over 13,000 feet above the sea, where the prevailing rock is conglomerate. The silver, discovered by an Indian in 1630, occurs in the native state; also as sulphuret mixed with pyrites, with cobrizo (a carbonate of copper and lead, with sulphuret of copper), and with oxides, forming what are known in Peru and Mexico as pacos and colorados. The ore is treated to salt and mercury, but so rudely that generally one pound of *It must not be understood, however, that auriferous deposits do not occur in Western Peru. I obtained very rich specimens of gold-bearing rock (a singular, decomposing, metamorphic rock) from Quilque, near Arequipa, eight leagues from the sea, in the coast range. The silver ore of Huamachuco and Pataz contains considerable gold. |