Among other scientific or social engagements, I called on the following day upon M. Lombardi, the author of a voluminous work on Peru, of which three large volumes have already appeared. M. Lombardi is a man of varied and extensive acquirements, especially in natural history, and in the course of frequent travels through the interior has accumulated a large mass of new materials of no slight value. Unfortunately, his work has been planned on a scale needlessly vast and costly; and now that the funds, at one time freely supplied by the Government, are no longer forthcoming, the prospect of its completion seems rather uncertain. The drawings and dissections of many species of plants from the higher regions of the Andes not hitherto figured, which M. Lombardi was good enough to show me, appeared to be very carefully executed, and their publication, in whatever form, would be welcomed by botanists.
A PERUVIAN SUGAR PLANTATION.
I had accepted an invitation to visit on the 27th a hacienda belonging to Don R. C—— and his brothers at a place called Caudivilla, about twenty miles north of Lima. In company with an agreeable party of the officers of two Italian frigates then stationed at Callao, we started by the railway which runs parallel to the coast from Lima to Ancon and Chancay. At a station about three miles from the hacienda, we left the main line, and were conveyed to our destination on a private line of railway belonging to the estate. This is a tract of flat country about eight miles long by four in breadth, extending to the base of the outermost spurs of the Cordillera, and watered by a stream from the higher range in the background. It is almost exclusively devoted to sugar-cultivation, and in the large buildings which we inspected the whole process of extracting sugar and rum from the cane was proceeding on a large scale, and with the aid of the most complete machinery and apparatus. Although some fifteen hundred workmen are employed upon the works, it appeared as if human labour played but a small part in the processes wherein steam power was the chief agent. Trains of small trucks, laden with sugar-cane cut to the right length, were drawn up an incline, the contents of each tilted in turn into a huge vat, wherein it was speedily crushed. We followed the torrent of juice which constantly flowed from this reservoir through a succession of large chambers until it reached the final stage, in which, purified and condensed, it is at once converted into crystals of pure sugar when thrown off by the centrifugal action of a rapidly revolving axis, while the colourless pellucid product which is to furnish the rum of commerce was conveyed into vessels whose dimensions would put to shame the great tun of Heidelberg.
I confess to having felt less interest in the industrial results of this admirably conducted estate, than in what I was able to learn of the human beings employed and their relations to their employers; and I found here matter for agreeable surprise. The workmen are partly agricultural labourers engaged in the sugar-plantation and other outdoor work, partly those employed in and about the factory. Among them were representatives of various races, the Chinese being perhaps in a majority, but with a considerable proportion of negroes and half-caste natives of Peru. I was struck at first with a general air of well-being among all the working people, and I found this easily accounted for when I saw more of the arrangements made for their benefit.
Among other departments we were shown the hospital, small, but perfectly clean and airy, in which there were only three or four patients, and a school with a cheerful-looking young mistress surrounded by jolly-looking little children, who came forward unasked to display their acquirements in spelling. But what particularly pleased me was the large eating-house, or restaurant, where we found hundreds of workmen at their midday meal. They were not marshalled at long tables, but sitting in small groups round separate tables, every man choosing his own company, and calling for the dish which he preferred. Seeing these men, each with his napkin, enjoying his selected food, I could not help thinking that in the article of diet they are better off than a traveller in many parts of Europe, to say nothing of the population of the British Islands. I was assured that no profit whatever was made on this branch of the establishment. There was no pretence of philanthropy, but simply the intelligent view that as a mere matter of business it answered best that the working men should feel themselves to be well off. In point of fact, the mere threat to discharge a man from his employment is usually found to be sufficient to maintain order and industry.
There was little time available for botanizing here, and, the ground being all under cultivation, little of any interest to be found. On the way back I secured one of the beautiful reeds (Gynerium) which abound in tropical America. Herbarium specimens give little idea of a grass which, in moist situations, is from twenty to twenty-five feet in height, and whose flowering panicle is from four to five feet long.
On the following day, April 28, Mr. Nation again acted as my guide in a short walk about the outskirts of the city on the south and south-west sides. Nothing could be more uninviting than the appearance of the ground, which consists of volcanic sand, in most places completely bare of vegetation, but strewn with the refuse of the city, skeletons of cattle, and all sorts of rejectamenta, which make it the favourite resort of the black gallinazo (Cathartes atratas), the universal scavenger in this part of South America. The bird is deservedly protected by the population, which probably owes to its activity protection from pestilence. On the banks of some ditches and drains, and on some patches of waste land moistened by infiltration, we found several interesting plants. It was not evidence of the good character of the lower class in Lima to observe that on these occasions Mr. Nation carried a loaded revolver in his breast-pocket.
SUPPOSED ANCIENT BEACHES.
Amongst various items of information received from Mr. Nation, I was especially interested in the facts which he had observed in the neighbourhood of Lima regarding the disintegration of the exposed volcanic rocks. As he was kind enough to give me a written memorandum on the subject, along with specimens of the objects referred to, I think it better to give the substance in his own words.
“In one of the earlier editions of his ‘Principles of Geology,’ Sir Charles Lyell, on the authority of Mr. Cruikshank, speaks of the evidence afforded of a considerable rise of land in the neighbourhood of Lima by the appearance of the surface of hard green sandstone rocks hollowed out into precisely the forms which they assume between high and low water mark on the shores of the Pacific, while immediately below these water-worn lines are ancient beaches strewn with rounded blocks. One of these cliffs appears on the hill behind the Baños del Pingro, about seven hundred feet above the contiguous valley; another occurs at Amancaes, about two hundred feet above the sea;[14] and others at intermediate elevations.” Mr. Nation remarks that, having seen these appearances soon after his arrival at Lima, continued observation during more than twenty-five years has satisfied him not only that the hollows spoken of in the surface of the rocks are larger than they were, but that many new ones have been formed during the interval. He is satisfied that the appearances, which, he admits, exactly resemble those caused by the sea on shore rocks, are due to subaërial action. The chief agent, in his opinion, is a cryptogamic plant growing on the surface of the rock. During a great part of the year, when dense fogs prevail at this elevation, the plant is in active vegetation. In the alternations of relative dryness and dampness of the air the cells swell and mechanically remove scales from the surface, which are seen to accumulate rapidly in the course of a single season.