On the lake there is one small schooner, belonging to Bolivia. The captain told me he never found more than thirty fathoms water; generally much less. In some places the water is so shoal that there is just room to push a balsa through the rushes. The deepest water is found on the eastern or Bolivian side.
This lake is about forty miles wide, and eighty miles long. By the appearance of the flat land we found on the north side of it, we judge it was at one time very much longer and deeper.
In the rainy season the rivers are loaded with soil from the mountains around, which being emptied into the lake, settles, and the water flows off, leaving behind its load of earth; and so the work from time immemorial has been going on. This great lake is gradually filling up; the water is getting shoaler every year; finally there will be a single stream flowing through what, in future ages, may be called Titicaca valley.
The easterly storms beat against the eastern sides of mountains scorched into dust by the rays of the sun in the dry season. There is no sod or growth to protect the soil from the heavy rains, which wash it away much more than on the western side.
CHAPTER IV.
Manto silver mine—Trade—Shores of Lake Titicaca—Rush balsas—Animals—Loftiest mountains—Aymara Indians—Mode of cultivation—Bottled fish—Frontier of Peru—Rio Desaguedero—Rush bridge—Bolivian military and custom-house—Southeast trade winds—Tiahuanaco ruins—Evaporation and precipitation—Planting small potatoes—Difficulty among postillions—City of La Paz—Population—Cinchona bark—Beni river and Madeira Plata—Transit duty—Gold washings of Tipuani—Productions of Yungas—Dried mutton and copper mines—Articles of the last constitution—A Bolivian lady's opinion of North Americans—Illimani snow-peak—Church performances of the Aymaras—Benenguela silver mines—Growth of cedar bushes.
The silver mines near Puna, with the exception of one, are standing idle. Manto, the principal mine, is situated two miles south of the town. It has been worked for twenty years; the vein ran nearly horizontally west-southwest, rising a little as it passed through the mountain. Water flowed out after the miner had gone in some distance, and a dam was built at the mouth of the mine, which backed it up. Iron canal boats navigated the stream, and brought out cargoes of rich silver ore; as the miner travelled on, he found the more use for his boat. The canal was locked, and the water dammed up by the gates; some distance farther back, when a second and third gate were built, the stream became smaller, and the vein rose much above the level of the entrance to the head of navigation. Pushing on into the bowels of the Andes, the miner built a railroad of iron from the canal to the head of the mine, continuing to lengthen it after him. When the train came down loaded with metal, it was embarked and floated out by boats with lights burning at the bow and stern, as the canal is winding and narrow, with just room for the boat to pass between the rocks.
A steam-engine turns a large stone wheel of twelve feet diameter, under which the ore was ground. It was washed by water from the canal, and separated from its quicksilver by the heat of fires made from the excrements of llamas, the only fuel known here. Meteorological observations at each lock in Manto canal, show at No. 1—air, 70°; water, 60°. No. 2—air, 68°; water, 60°. No. 3—air, 64°; water, 59°. The distance to the head of navigation is about half a mile, though the workmen say more than a mile. An Englishman has been engaged here of late years, and after spending much time with little gain, has left. Manto, with all its machinery, stands a ruin. The mine is falling in; the canal-boats leak; the engine is rusting, and the last boat-load of silver ore was scattered over the ground. I am told that the vein has been gradually decreasing in richness as the expensive works have been going on. The machinery was brought from England, and transported over the mountains from the coast on mules' backs, at great expense.
The necessity of bringing proper workmen with the machinery is also costly. Provision is scarce in Puno, and people from other parts of the country complain of the market. Thick clothing is required in this climate, and tailoring appears to be the best business. Englishmen are generous in their expenditures on machinery and preparations for mining. There certainly has been a great deal of labor expended at the Manto mine. There are a number of other mines in this department, and some in this neighborhood; but, with the exception of the gold mines of Carabaya, there is very little profit gained under the present system of management.
The annual yield of silver in the departments of Huancavelica, Ayacucho, Cuzco, and Puno, has been decreasing for some time. The custom has been to abandon the mine as soon as the chisel struck below the water-line, and seek for a new vein; until now, when we want silver more than ever, it is all under water. There are few new discoveries made, and mining seems to have become, year after year, a less profitable business. Merchants are afraid to advance large sums of money, lest it may be lost by the vein running out, leaving expensive machinery on their hands. Yet there is undoubtedly immense riches in the different metals of these departments, which might be extracted after a scientific exploration of the country, and with a judicious system of mining.