From the small town of Zepita the contrast between the snow-capped mountains to the east and the dark blue waters of the lake is remarkable. Here we succeeded in bottling two fish from the lake, without scales, about eight inches long, designed for Professor Agassiz.
The town of Desaguedero has a population of five hundred. At 11 a. m. we arrived, and found the governor busily employed at a fish breakfast. He was a cheerful, fat, polite, three-quarter-blooded Indian. In return for fish we gave him our passports; after reading them, he ordered the Indian servant to fetch a bottle of Ica wine. As he drew the cork he told me the Indians believed Lake Titicaca emptied its waters into the Pacific ocean by a subterraneous passage under the Cordillera range. They had found the Titicaca rush lying on the coast near Cobija, which differed essentially from weeds growing in salt water. A difference of opinion seemed to arouse him, and he said: "There are more than twenty different streams of water flowing from the mountain sides into this Titicaca basin, and not one has been seen flowing out; now, if I keep pouring wine into this cup, it will overflow and run down the sides, won't it?" Provided you do not drink it up as the sun does the waters, we answered.
After breakfast the governor walked to the river Desaguedero with us. This river is the southeastern boundary line of Peru. We were detained a short time at the bridge to allow one hundred unloaded llamas to pass from Bolivia to Peru. Rush balsas are secured side by side, bridge fashion, and a quantity of rushes piled upon them. They are kept in place by large rope cables fastened on each side of the river to a stone foundation; The distance from the shore of Peru to the Bolivian side is fifty yards. The river three fathoms deep under the bridge, with a current three-quarters of a mile per hour running south. The color of the water is blue; it is fresh and cool—temperature of 60°; the Indians drink it here. This is the only stream flowing out of Lake Titicaca. After running southwardly some eighty leagues, the water spreads over a flat, forming what is called Lake Pampas Aullagas, from which there is no flow into either ocean.
We were told that in the year 1846 there were heavy rains to the south of Desaguedero; the river flowed for thirty days north into Lake Titicaca; with that exception it is reported to flow as we saw it.
In the rainy season the river rises about nine feet, the rapid current often sweeps away the bridge; at the same time the flats on both sides of the river are overflowed. The width of the Desaguedero valley, at the outlet from the lake, is three-quarters of a mile, nearly all overflowed in the rainy season by the waters seeking an escape between the small hills on both sides.
At the southern end of Lake Titicaca the water is clearer, sweeter, and cooler, than it is on the north side. There is no offensive odor from the lake here. There are nine kinds of fish caught near the outlet, and as many of water fowl. Fish are found on the tables, while in Puno they are seldom used. We know on the ocean that currents of warm water pass through cold water like oil, refusing to mingle. The streams of cold water are quite as exclusive.
When Lake Titicaca is at its lowest it receives more water from the snow peaks on its eastern shore, than from any other source during the dry season. As the snow streams are generally clear, we concluded the cold water runs through the lake in streams towards the outlet. In the wet season, as the muddy streams till up the lake, they deposit their loads of earthy matter on the western and northern side, which disturb animal life. The fish seek a quiet retreat and are, therefore, found more plentifully on the southern and eastern sides of the lake.
All the dead rushes, driven by the east winds to the west side, lodge on the flats and beach, manure the dry places, and deposit their seed; more rushes grow there to catch the sediment as the water filters through. Year after year the growth dies off, breaks down, and helps the upward levelling law. The rush grows from six to eight feet long. It is called totora by the Indians. The stalk is of the size and shaped like the blade of a bayonet, with a head and flower resembling clusters of ripe buckwheat. It supplies the place of wood, iron, canvass, and greens. The Indians were taught by the Incas to make bridges of it, over which they passed their armies; besides their boats and sails, houses and beds are sometimes made of it. An old Indian was seen refreshing himself with the juice at one end of a stalk, while his little child tickled another one's nose, and made it laugh with the flower. Such is the value and uses of this wild vegetable production.
We cannot understand why the population of those mountains have not cleared more lands at the base of the Andes, where their children would find beautiful flowers, and the men the real sugar-stalk; where they might tickle their noses with the fragrance from rich pine-apples and oranges, and where their tables might be loaded with the choicest vegetable productions. At the headwaters of the Madre-de-Dios Peru has a garden, but the lands in all directions seem almost a desert.
When Pizarro came with his followers, they found the mountains filled with silver; they helped themselves, and the Indians assisted them in doing so. Little or no attention was paid by the Spaniards to the cultivation of the soil, to the manufacture of wool, or the commercial resources of the eastern country.