[126] The volcano of Arequipa is 10,500 feet above its base, but 18,000 above sea-level.
[127] "Peru; Sketches of Travel, 1839-42, by J. J. v. Tschudi." St. Gall, 1846: Vol. i. p. 335. Also, "Investigations on the Fauna of Peru." St. Gall, 1844-46. The author from personal observation speaks as follows of these singular sand-columns, whirling along before the wind. "Driving before a strong wind, the medanos speedily overleap all barriers, the lighter and more easily-propelled preceding the heavier like an advanced guard. Sometimes they are hurled against each other, when, so soon as they meet, they are dashed violently together, and break up simultaneously. Frequently a flat stretch of ground is covered within a few hours by a row of sand-hills, which within a day or two more resume their level monotonous appearance. The most experienced guides consequently become confused as to the way, and it is they who the soonest give way to despair as they wander blindly about among the sand-hills. The small mountain-spurs, by which the country is traversed from W. to E., afford some sort of clue, but these oases are few and far between in the sterile wilderness around."
[128] The ordinary mode of writing the word "Guano" is erroneous, as already remarked by Tschudi, as the Quichua language, to which the word belongs, is deficient in the consonant G, among others. The Spaniards first converted into a G the strongly aspirated H of the original, while the last syllable "nu," which so frequently terminates the words adopted from the Quichua, was changed by them into "no."
[129] Only the immense numbers of sea-fowl, their extraordinary voracity, and the bounteous provision for supplying them with food, can furnish any possible explanation of the enormous mass accumulated here, even allowing for such a lapse of time. Mr. Tschudi, in the course of his travels in Peru, once kept for several days a live Sula variegata, which he was continually feeding with fish. He carefully collected the excrement, when, notwithstanding these birds eat much less in captivity than in a state of nature, it voided in a day from 3 1⁄2 to 5 oz.! According to other investigations in natural history, it seems that the pelican eats 20 lbs. a day of fish.
[130] Beds of guano have also been discovered lately by Captain Ord at the Kooria-Mooria Islands, on the south coast of Arabia, in 18° N. 56° E., 850 miles E.N.E. of Aden. Here any ship can load this valuable cargo on paying a duty of £2 per ton to the English Government, which has recently established a colony at the bay and islands of that name, and has made it a coaling station. But the African guano is by no means so strong or so pungent a manure as that found on the rainless coasts of Peru, where certain peculiarities of climate combine to make it less liable to diminution of its saline virtues by dissolution or liquefaction.
[131] The day on which Lima was founded by Pizarro was the 6th January, 1534, which according to the Catholic calendar is that dedicated to the Three Kings of Cologne, whence, in conformity with the religious customs of the period, the city was named "Ciudad de los Reyes" (City of the Kings).
[132] I feel it a pleasant duty to express here publicly how much I am indebted to the representatives of this celebrated firm in the different ports of South America, and to the head of the house in London, for the kind and generous manner in which this gentleman endeavoured to facilitate and advance the objects I had in view.
[133] One of the most distinguished physicians of the capital, Dr. Archibald Smith, has collected some interesting particulars, with the dates, respecting the outbreak of these fearful maladies, which we intend to publish elsewhere.
[134] This institution is also in charge of the Sisters of Charity. There were only some ten or twelve children in course of education, who, however, seemed to be in excellent health and well fed. When I expressed to the lady superintendent my astonishment that the establishment was not more extensively patronized, she replied, "Los niños se crian en la Calle!" (The children are here brought up in the streets.)
[135] There are in Lima 46 private lying-in establishments. The mothers are extremely loth to separate from their children, and if great difficulty be experienced in getting wet-nurses, this is to be attributed far more to the love of the mothers for their children than to strict morality among the mass of the population.