The traveller, who starts at an early hour from Cerro Pasco, passes by the villages of Old Pasco and Carhuamayo, and arrives in good time at the village of Junin, or Reyes. The ride is mostly by the lake of Chinchaycocha, and on pampa or nearly level ground. From Junin, he, on his second day’s journey, which is only counted as seven leagues, traverses the spacious plain of the same name, so justly memorable in the annals of South American independence, till he reaches that swampy ground, and crosses the very defile, where, in the year 1824, the Patriots were charged by the Spanish cavalry; and now, leaving this field of glory behind, he crosses to Huaypacha along a hilly pastoral district, with scarcely any regular footpath,—a circumstance which often renders a guide necessary. The silver ore of Huaypacha is too poor in the present day to allow its mines to be worked with spirit. Here the principal metalliferous works are on the mine estate of Olevegoya and the well-informed Don Miguel Otero; where also a considerable portion of alcaser, or green barley, is raised as fodder for the cattle employed at the works. The entrance into Huaypacha is highly picturesque, from the striking configuration of the limestone rocks in which the silver is deposited, and which overhang and everywhere surround this neat mining village.
From Huaypacha we cross the river Jauja, over a soga-bridge of the same sort of materials with another at Oroya formerly described.[30] The next day’s ride, of about the same length with the preceding, is made over hilly pasture-ground to Tucto by Pucara,—the latter place, now in ruins, being once a famous mining establishment belonging to Don Pedro Arriarte, the great miner of Peru. At Tucto several Indian huts, and some of them of ridiculously small dimensions, are to be seen near the road; but lower down, and situated near a lake at the base of the Cordillera, is a mining estate in good order, though its mines in these latter times have proved ruinous to the miner. The soil around this estate is of a yellowish tint, and is said to abound in gold (a gold mine being also close to the house); and the stones by the road-side are, in numerous instances, covered with crusts of iron pyrites, which impart to them a beautiful appearance, such as, in the imagination of many unacquainted with mineralogy, may serve to give a very flattering idea of the golden treasure of this place.
On the heights of Tucto, to the extent of about half a league along the Cordillera, the surrounding rocks appear like vast masses of rusty iron, which, however, when a specimen is taken up and broken, presents the character of porphyry; but, as we proceed onward towards the summit of the Cordillera, no rocks are to be seen on the acclivity along which we travel, except we look high up, where, in form of mouldering projections, they rise amidst the débris which covers this part of the Cordillera down to the verge of the lakes beneath. The mule-road is a sort of track across the flank of this mass of loose and shuffling fragments, which consist of porphyry, and extend a considerable way towards Antacona, or the ruins of a mining village so called, on the very highest ridge of this mountain-pass. From the extent of the vestiges of industry still remaining, and the ruins of human dwellings seen among the weather-beaten cliffs, we may infer that these mines, like many others, abandoned for want of proper hydraulic machinery, at one time yielded useful metals and rich returns. On the Antacona side of the pass there is no appearance of permanent snow, for here, as on the plains, though it fall, it soon melts away; but just opposite, parallel to the line of road, and only separated by a marshy hollow in which several little lakes are contained, there are mountains or summits perpetually covered with snow of great depth, and the marsh and lakes just mentioned are supplied by rills which descend from the snow. At the mouths of the mines of Antacona, which are interspersed among rocks of porphyry or porphyritic green-stone, a great quantity of rubbish, extracted at a remote period from under ground, is to be seen. Among this rubbish there appears a large quantity of iron pyrites with quartz, and there is also a considerable quantity of loose calcareous matter separated from the ore by partial decomposition. We may mention that the famous mine of Alpamina, wrought in the present day in this vicinity, is embedded in a matrix of limestone.
Having descended some way from the cross on the highest point of the pass of Antacona, the surrounding rock (probably a variety of porphyry) has a reddish appearance, and is continued for a considerable distance to the village of Casapalca; and the soil also, at this part of the way, is of the same colour with the rock. We may likewise remark, that about the road-side, and in the river or mountain-stream, which is derived from the contribution of the numberless rivulets issuing from the heights, we see for the distance of about two leagues numerous large and small pudding-stones of the same reddish appearance.
Casapalca, distant by common reckoning two long leagues from Tucto, is now considered as a village or pueblo, though it appears to have been originally merely a mining establishment. Here the attention is arrested by a pretty cascade, which, making a great perpendicular descent, is received into the interior of a jutting rock; and, after a subterranean passage of some extent, the concealed waters reappear, and in a gentle stream descend to join the river. From the foot of the Cordillera to Casapalca the llama thrives on the pasture, which it appears to find sweetest within a short distance of the snow-line.
From Casapalca to the next village below it, called Pomacancha or Chicle, there are two leagues of good road; and here green barley may be sometimes had to feed the hungry cattle, that are often nearly famished by the time they have arrived this far, after having crossed the Cordillera.
From Chicle to San Mateo, a distance of three leagues, there are two roads,—one by a famous steep or cuesta, and the other through a picturesque but rugged ravine along the windings of the river,—both of which we took notice of in describing the general features of the Sierra. San Mateo is a muleteer village like that of Obrajillo already described, and very much resembles it in climate and productions, though the temperature of the air may be a little colder here than at Obrajillo.
In crossing by the high mountain-path from Chicle to San Mateo, we observed that where the ascent commences on the higher side, or that nearest the Cordillera, the rock at the base of the mountain consists of porphyry; but, as we ascend the great cuesta, the precipice assumes the character of porphyritic green-stone. At the base of the descent on the lower, or San Mateo side of the mountain, there is by the road-side a projection of rock which has the appearance of mica-slate, but of which none of our travellers took up a specimen; as by this time the day was far gone, and both men and cattle were fatigued, and anxious to reach the lodgings for the night in time to provide convenient accommodation.