Travels in Peru, on the Coast, in the Sierra, Across the Cordilleras and the Andes, into the Primeval Forests

by Johann Jakob von Tschudi

The scene changes in May. A thin veil of mist then overspreads the sea and the shore. In the following months the thickness of the mist increases, and it is only in October that it begins to disperse. In the beginning and at the end of the period called winter this mist commonly rises between nine and ten o'clock in the morning, and disappears about three, P.M. It is heaviest in August and September; and it then lies for weeks immoveable on the earth. It does not resolve into what may be properly called rain, but it becomes a fine minute precipitate which the natives call GARUA (thick fog or drizzling rain). Many travellers have alleged that there are places on the Peruvian coast which have been without rain for centuries. The assertion is to a certain degree correct, for there are many districts in which there never is rain except after an earthquake, and not always even then.

Though the garua sometimes falls in large drops, still there is this distinction between it and rain, that it descends not from clouds at a great height, but is formed in the lower atmospheric regions, by the union of small bubbles of mist. The average perpendicular height over which this fog passes does not exceed one thousand two hundred feet; its medium boundary is from seven to eight hundred feet. That it is known only within a few miles of the sea is a highly curious phenomenon; beyond those few miles it is superseded by heavy rains; and the boundary line between the rain and the mist may be defined with mathematical precision. I know two plantations, the one six leagues from Lima, the other in the neighborhood of Huacho: one half of these lands is watered by the garuas, the other half by rain, and the boundary line is marked by a wall.

When the mists set in, the chain of hillocks (Lomas) bordering the sand-flats on the coasts undergoes a complete change. As if by a stroke of magic, blooming vegetation overspreads the soil, which, a few days previously, was a mere barren wilderness. Horses and cattle are driven into these parts for grazing, and during several months the animals find abundance of rich pasture. There is, however, no water; but they do not appear to suffer from the want of it, for they are always in good healthy condition on leaving the Lomas.

In some parts of northern Peru, where the garuas are scanty, the fertility of the soil depends wholly on the mountain rains, for in summer most of the rivers are dried up. When there is a deficiency of rain, the cattle on the coast suffer greatly. A few years ago a haciendado, or cultivator, in the vale of Piura, lost 42,000 sheep; the usual flood, without which the necessary fodder could not be raised, did not come on at the proper time. At Piura there is such a total absence of dew, that a sheet of paper left for a whole night in the open air does not, in the morning, exhibit the smallest trace of humidity. In central and south Peru the moisture scarcely penetrates half an inch into the earth.

In the oases the garuas are much heavier than in the adjacent wastes. Along the whole of the coast there is no rain, and no vegetation throughout a large circuit. The rain commences first in the north at Tumbez, and there extensive woods are seen. Towards the east it begins first in the valleys of the Cordilleras, which abound in vegetation. These very extraordinary phenomena remain as yet unexplained; they, however, merit the closest investigation of meteorologists.

I may conclude this chapter by a brief view of the Fauna of the higher vertebral animals. In the region of the coast I have found twenty-six species of mammalia, only eight of which belong exclusively to the coast. Sixteen of the other species are to be found in the mountains or in the forests. The relation of this number to the whole of the mammalia of Peru is 1:4, 3. Distributed by single orders, they are in the following proportions:—Bats, four species, of which only one (Vespertilio innoxius, Gerv.) belongs to this region alone. Beasts of prey, ten kinds; among them one of the mephitic class, known to the natives by the name of zorillo, or añash; an otter (Lutra chilensis, Ben.); a fox (Canis azaræ, Pr. Max.), which abounds in the cotton plantations in the neighborhood of Lima and throughout all the Lomas, where he preys on the lambs; several of the feline race, among which are the two great American species—the puma and the ounce, which are seldom seen on the coast, but are considerably larger than those in the mountains. The American lion is timid, and shuns man. When caught young he is easily tamed. The Indians of the northern provinces sometimes bring these lions to Lima, and get money for showing them. They lead them by a string, or put them in large sacks, and carry them about on their backs, until a show-loving crowd assembles around them. The ounces are very bold and fierce. They penetrate into plantations, and attack children and horses. They very cunningly avoid the numerous snares laid for them by the Indians. An encounter with this animal is serious and dangerous. A hunt seldom ends without some of the pursuers being killed or wounded by the animal.

I have already spoken of the seals. There are three kinds of didelphic or marsupial animals on the coast. The natives call them mucamuca. They live in bushes and shrubberies, and they often find their way into the store-rooms of the plantations.

Of the great section of the Rodentia, I know of only seven species in Peru; but I have no doubt that this number might be doubled by a careful search in the valleys on the coast. The common house-mouse is very numerous in Lima. The brown rat appears seldom. It came to Peru only a few years ago; but there is reason to apprehend that it will soon be very numerous. Probably it has been imported by Hamburgh ships. In Callao I saw specimens of some that had been killed. I did not see the common black rat in Peru.

The Armadillo (Dasypus tatuay, Desm., L.) is seldom seen. It is found in some of the Yucca and Camote plantations. The negroes eat it, and its flesh is said to be good.

Of wild ruminating animals there is only one on the coast: it is a kind of Roe (Cervus nemorivagus, F. Cuv., the venado of the natives). The venados chiefly inhabit the brushwood along the coast; but after sunset they visit the plantations, where they commit considerable damage. They are smaller than our European roe, and somewhat more brown. Englishmen at Lima go out to hunt them. The natives do not take much interest in the chase. This animal is also met with in the coldest regions of the Cordilleras; but it does not come down to the old forests, where the Red Deer (Cervus rufus, F. Cuv.) supplies its absence.