Transcriber’s Note: The errata have been corrected but otherwise the original spelling (in both English and Spanish) has been preserved.
PERU AS IT IS.
CHAPTER I.
Site, population, and climate of Cerro Pasco.—Houses.—Coal, and other kinds of fuel.—Timber for use of the mines, &c.—Where brought from.—Fruit and provisions.—Mines.—Mantadas.—Boliches.—Habilitador.—Mint.—Returns of the mines.—Banks of Rescate.—Pasco foundery.
The town of Cerro Pasco, about fourteen thousand feet above the level of the sea, has its site in an irregular hollow on the northern side of a group of small hills, which commence at Old Pasco on the north-east limit of the high table-land of Bombon.
Cerro Pasco is thus situated at nearly equal distances, or about twenty leagues, from Tarma on the south and Huanaco on the north, both after their kind fertile and productive. It has the fine lake of Chinchaycocha, near old Pasco on its south; and, on the north, the outskirts of the town almost reach to a funnel-mouthed gullet which leads with a rapid descent to the village of Quinoa, three leagues distant. Its eastern and western aspects are bounded in the view by the respective ridges of the eastern and western Cordillera; and the intervening spaces between this bed of Peruvian treasure, and the stupendous barriers presented by these commanding summits, forming a grand amphitheatre, are enlivened throughout much of their extent by the innumerable herds of sheep and folds of cattle that roam and flourish upon them. Here and there are seen groups of the tame llama and shy vicuña; whilst the whole landscape is variegated with lakes, rivulets, and marshes, whose surfaces are ever rippled by the fluttering flocks of geese, ducks, snipes, plovers, water-hens, herons, yanavicas, flamingos, &c. which at their proper and appropriate seasons animate and adorn this wide expanse. Nor should we omit to mention that far towards the west, and skirting the limits of the great plains, are seen from the surrounding heights strange fragments of rock, as in the neighbourhood of Huallay, that assume to the distant eye the appearance of dark pine-trees rising under the shade of the adjacent mountains.
The waters of this mineral district are partly carried off by the famous Adit of Quiullacocha, and a considerable portion of these naturally percolate northward into the hollow of Rumillana near to Cerro, from whence starts the spring Puceoyaco, the source of the river Huallaga.
The population of Cerro Pasco is in a great degree migratory, for it increases and diminishes according as the mines are highly productive, or in a state of poverty and inundation for want of proper drainage: were the drainage perfect, the treasure that might be extracted would be incalculable. The number of inhabitants is never, perhaps, under four or five thousand, and it has been known to swell up to thrice this amount,—the most active hands happily finding accommodation under ground. When the mines were thus productive, the abode of the master-miner rang with the clink of hard dollars, as the die was kept in constant motion; and the fair sex crowded from the more genial vales, and enlivened the miners’ home with the song, guitar, and dance.