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Show 426 PLATEAU OF CAXAMAROA. We found among the thin blades of Ichhu-grass (perhaps our Stipa eriostachya), a beautifui Calceolaria (C. sibthorpioides), which we should not have expected at such an elevation. Not far from the town of Micuipampa, in a high plain called Llanos or Pampa de Navar, there have been found throughout an area of above an English geographical square mile, immediately under the turf, and as it were intertwined with the roots of the alpine grasses, enormous masses of rich red silver ore and threads of pure silver (in remolinos, clavos, and vetas manteadas). Another elevated plain west of the Purgatorio, near the Que brad a de Chiquera, is called "Choropampa" or the "Field of Shells" ( churu, in the Quichua language, signifies shells, and particularly small eatable kinds, hostion, mexillon ). The name refers to fossils which belong to the cretaceous group, and which are found there in such abundance that they early attracted the attention of the natives. This is the place where there was obtained near the sur{ace a mass of pure gold spun round with threads of silver in the richest manner. Such an occurrence shows how independent many of the ores thrown up from the interior of the earth into fissures or veins, are of the nature of the adjacent rock and of the relative age of the formations broken through. The rock of the Cerro de Gualgayoc and of Fuentestiana has a great deal of water, but in _the Purgatorio absolute dryness prevails. I found to my astonishment that, notwithstanding the height of the strata above the level of the sea, the temperature of the last-named mine was 15°.8 Reaumur (67°.4 Fahr.); while in the neighboring Mina de Guadalupe, the water in the mine showed about go Reaumur (52°.2 Fahr.). As in the open air the thermometer only rises to about 4° Reaumur (41 o Fahr.), the miners, whose toil is severe, and who are almost without clothing, call the subterranean heat in the Purgatorio stifling. lhe narrow path from Micuipampa to the ancient city of the Incas, Caxamarca, is difficult even for mules. The name of the town was originally Cassamarca or Kazamarca, i. e. the Frost town (marca, as signifying a place or locality, belongs to the northern Chinchaysuyo or Chinchaysuyu dialect, while the word in the general Quichua language signifies the stories of houses, and also defences . or forts). Our way lay for five or six hours over a succession of |
