Piura, capital of the Department, mean temperature 78°, is in an irrigated valley 60 miles from the desert port Paita, with which it is connected by rail. A line of narrower gauge goes on to Catacaos, population 20,000, six miles distant but nearer the sea, where 300,000 Panamá hats are made yearly. They may be bought at Paita for one fourth, perhaps for one eighth of the price commonly asked for the finer ones in New York. The main railway is to be prolonged from Piura to the town of Moropón. Farther south, from Bayovar, a small port on the Bay of Sechura, a railroad leads 30 miles to the sulphur mines of Reventazón; but the sulphur, an important export, must be cleared from the custom house at Paita.
Lambayeque, south of Piura, contains large estates of sugar and rice, the chief exports. It has one of the primary coast ports, Etén (population 3000), but a poor one, merely an open roadstead where there is always a swell, at times so severe that debarking passengers must be lowered in a sort of hogshead by windlass, chain, and pulley to the launch or small boat alongside. Freight lowered to lighters is likely here to get a particularly hard bump. An iron pier 2000 feet long is for the use of the lighters.
Chiclayo, the capital, is 41 miles by rail from Etén. By this railway and its branches, Ferreñafe, Lambayeque, and Patapó may also be reached. From Pimentel, a minor port, a shorter railway runs to Chiclayo. From the Lobos Islands off the coast much guano was formerly taken.
La Libertad, the larger Department following, has two primary ports, the first, Pacasmayo, a short sail from Etén. From Pacasmayo 85 miles of railway lead up country to the towns Guadalupe and Chilete. From Chilete the road should be carried over the Cordillera to the important city of Cajamarca, 50 miles beyond, whither Pizarro marched nearly 400 years ago; but the grades would be difficult and the road awaits the supply of more pressing needs. Another long pier serves the port of Pacasmayo, from which are shipped sugar, rice, fruit, etc. Sixty-six miles farther is the primary port of Salaverry, population 5000.
Trujillo, the capital of the Department, is eight miles distant; beyond is the Chicama Valley, noted for its splendid sugar estates. A railway 75 miles long going up the valley to Ascope, does a large business. An extension planned to the plateau above, 12,900 feet, will pass extensive coal fields at Huanday, and reach copper and silver mines at Queruvilca. A maximum grade of 6¹⁄₂ per cent would make the construction expensive. Another road from the sugar lands is being constructed to the better port, Malabrigo. A little north of Salaverry is the minor port of Huanchaco, which also exports much sugar, though the chief shipment is from Salaverry.
Ancash, the next Department, which is still larger, has five minor ports, one of which, Chimbote, should soon become a primary. For this expectation there are several reasons: first, the harbor, land locked by a long peninsula and several islands, is called the finest on the entire West Coast below Panamá. It has an area of 36 square miles without a rock below its placid surface. Though now with but an ordinary iron pier for lighters, docks approachable by the largest ships could be arranged on an island, which a bridge over a 200 yard channel would easily connect with the main land. There are two other entrances, one half a mile across.
The American capitalist, Henry Meiggs, the prime mover in the construction of the South and Central Peruvian Railways, had the foresight in the early seventies to perceive the great commercial possibilities of this harbor. He planned a city on the shore and began a railway to extend up the Santa River Valley to Huarás, 167 miles. The road bed had been constructed 80 miles, the rails laid 60, when the Chilian war broke out. The invaders, after capturing Chimbote, carried off the rolling stock and supplies and destroyed what else they could. Subsequently the project remained long in abeyance, the road being operated for 35 miles only; but after several recent concessions and delays with little work accomplished, the Government has taken over the line and is pushing forward the extension from the point already attained, La Limeña, 65 miles from Chimbote. Work was begun July, 1919, on a branch line to coal fields near Ancos, 15¹⁄₂ miles, which later will pass near two copper deposits and through Huamachuco and Cajabamba. After the first few miles the main road follows the Santa River, which enters the ocean a few miles north of the harbor.
The Santa has the distinction of being the largest river in Peru flowing into the Pacific Ocean. Rising among the heavily snow covered peaks of the White Cordillera, though nowhere navigable it has a large water supply for irrigation, made use of by the Incas. It could easily be made available for a large district back of Chimbote. At present the railway serves only a few sugar plantations on the lower part of the river’s course, but its further construction will open up immense coal fields, and farther on in the Huailas Valley great mineral deposits of gold, silver, etc., and a fine though limited agricultural district which already has a large population.
The Huailas Valley has on the east the Cordillera Blanca, whose splendid snow capped summits rise to an altitude of 20,000 to 22,000 feet; on the west the Cordillera Negra reaches a height of 17,000 to 18,000 feet; the passes into the valley are above 14,000. The floor of the valley rises from 3000 feet at the north to 10,000 at Huarás and 11,000 at Recuay. Along the way are the considerable towns of Caráz, Yungay, Carhuaz, and Huaráz, capital of the Department, each with populations of from 5000 to 10,000, besides the people at haciendas and at mining centers on either hand. This has been called the richest and most thickly settled portion of Peru. All sub-tropical and temperate productions flourish here at various elevations; the mineral riches may rival the Klondike as the scenic splendor surpasses that of Chamonix. East of Yungay rises the magnificent twin-peaked Huascarán, the first and only ascent of which was made by the author with two Swiss guides, September 2, 1908; the north peak, altitude 21,812 feet, is still, 1921, the highest point in all America yet attained by any North or South American.
The only difficulty in the construction of the railway is where the Santa River breaks through the Black Cordillera to turn towards the coast, the narrow gorge being impracticable even for pedestrians. In this region and beyond are immense coal fields. These, chiefly anthracite and semi-anthracite, therefore non-coking, some people believed worthless, being ignorant that for many purposes hard coal is more valuable than soft. However there are also beds of bituminous. The coal deposits continue in the lateral valleys, where the owners use them merely for their own households. Samples run over 82 per cent carbon. A quarter of a mile from Caráz (population 8000) coal may be mined and put on trucks at $1.50 a ton. The Chuquisaca River from the north joins the Santa just before that breaks through the Cordillera. This Department is very mountainous. Besides the Santa, four rivers descend to the sea, i.e., they do sometimes; for, rising on the west of the Black Range, obviously so called because it has little snow on it, these rivers are often dry, yet they serve to irrigate many sugar plantations. At the mouth of the Santa River north of Chimbote is the village Santa, an occasional port of call for the caletero (not express) boats, which regularly visit several ports below: Samanco, 27 miles of desert from Chimbote, Casma, after 50 miles more, and Huarmey, 55 beyond. Back of Samanco is the Nepeña River Valley with two large sugar plantations; and high in the Black Range, Colquipocro, one of the richest silver mines worked in Peru. Some of the selected ore ran as high as $2000 a ton, and large quantities averaged $200 when silver was 50 cents an ounce. Samanco and Casma are the usual ports for entering the Huailas Valley; Chimbote also serves.