Archibald Smith

Account of another route between Pasco and Lima, by Junin, Huaypacha, Pucara, Tucto.—Mines of Antacona, Casapalca, Pomacancha, San Mateo, San Juan de Matucana, Surco, Cocachacra, Santa Ana, and lastly, Chaclacayo.—Enumeration of a series of rocks, as they appear in succession from the pass of the Cordillera to the entrance into the Vale of Rimac.

The most frequented route between Lima and Pasco is that which we have described in the foregoing chapter; but, before we offer any particular account of Cerro Pasco, we may hastily run over the road which is sometimes taken from this place to the capital during the heavy falls of the periodical rains in the inland mountains, when several of the rivers on the road by Canta are deep and dangerous rapids. This route across a pass of the Cordillera at Tucto, near Yauli, is occasionally preferred, as being shorter than the post-road by Tarma.

The traveller, who starts at an early hour from Cerro Pasco, passes by the villages of Old Pasco and Carhuamayo, and arrives in good time at the village of Junin, or Reyes. The ride is mostly by the lake of Chinchaycocha, and on pampa or nearly level ground. From Junin, he, on his second day’s journey, which is only counted as seven leagues, traverses the spacious plain of the same name, so justly memorable in the annals of South American independence, till he reaches that swampy ground, and crosses the very defile, where, in the year 1824, the Patriots were charged by the Spanish cavalry; and now, leaving this field of glory behind, he crosses to Huaypacha along a hilly pastoral district, with scarcely any regular footpath,—a circumstance which often renders a guide necessary. The silver ore of Huaypacha is too poor in the present day to allow its mines to be worked with spirit. Here the principal metalliferous works are on the mine estate of Olevegoya and the well-informed Don Miguel Otero; where also a considerable portion of alcaser, or green barley, is raised as fodder for the cattle employed at the works. The entrance into Huaypacha is highly picturesque, from the striking configuration of the limestone rocks in which the silver is deposited, and which overhang and everywhere surround this neat mining village.

From Huaypacha we cross the river Jauja, over a soga-bridge of the same sort of materials with another at Oroya formerly described.[30] The next day’s ride, of about the same length with the preceding, is made over hilly pasture-ground to Tucto by Pucara,—the latter place, now in ruins, being once a famous mining establishment belonging to Don Pedro Arriarte, the great miner of Peru. At Tucto several Indian huts, and some of them of ridiculously small dimensions, are to be seen near the road; but lower down, and situated near a lake at the base of the Cordillera, is a mining estate in good order, though its mines in these latter times have proved ruinous to the miner. The soil around this estate is of a yellowish tint, and is said to abound in gold (a gold mine being also close to the house); and the stones by the road-side are, in numerous instances, covered with crusts of iron pyrites, which impart to them a beautiful appearance, such as, in the imagination of many unacquainted with mineralogy, may serve to give a very flattering idea of the golden treasure of this place.

On the heights of Tucto, to the extent of about half a league along the Cordillera, the surrounding rocks appear like vast masses of rusty iron, which, however, when a specimen is taken up and broken, presents the character of porphyry; but, as we proceed onward towards the summit of the Cordillera, no rocks are to be seen on the acclivity along which we travel, except we look high up, where, in form of mouldering projections, they rise amidst the dÉbris which covers this part of the Cordillera down to the verge of the lakes beneath. The mule-road is a sort of track across the flank of this mass of loose and shuffling fragments, which consist of porphyry, and extend a considerable way towards Antacona, or the ruins of a mining village so called, on the very highest ridge of this mountain-pass. From the extent of the vestiges of industry still remaining, and the ruins of human dwellings seen among the weather-beaten cliffs, we may infer that these mines, like many others, abandoned for want of proper hydraulic machinery, at one time yielded useful metals and rich returns. On the Antacona side of the pass there is no appearance of permanent snow, for here, as on the plains, though it fall, it soon melts away; but just opposite, parallel to the line of road, and only separated by a marshy hollow in which several little lakes are contained, there are mountains or summits perpetually covered with snow of great depth, and the marsh and lakes just mentioned are supplied by rills which descend from the snow. At the mouths of the mines of Antacona, which are interspersed among rocks of porphyry or porphyritic green-stone, a great quantity of rubbish, extracted at a remote period from under ground, is to be seen. Among this rubbish there appears a large quantity of iron pyrites with quartz, and there is also a considerable quantity of loose calcareous matter separated from the ore by partial decomposition. We may mention that the famous mine of Alpamina, wrought in the present day in this vicinity, is embedded in a matrix of limestone.

Having descended some way from the cross on the highest point of the pass of Antacona, the surrounding rock (probably a variety of porphyry) has a reddish appearance, and is continued for a considerable distance to the village of Casapalca; and the soil also, at this part of the way, is of the same colour with the rock. We may likewise remark, that about the road-side, and in the river or mountain-stream, which is derived from the contribution of the numberless rivulets issuing from the heights, we see for the distance of about two leagues numerous large and small pudding-stones of the same reddish appearance.

Casapalca, distant by common reckoning two long leagues from Tucto, is now considered as a village or pueblo, though it appears to have been originally merely a mining establishment. Here the attention is arrested by a pretty cascade, which, making a great perpendicular descent, is received into the interior of a jutting rock; and, after a subterranean passage of some extent, the concealed waters reappear, and in a gentle stream descend to join the river. From the foot of the Cordillera to Casapalca the llama thrives on the pasture, which it appears to find sweetest within a short distance of the snow-line.

From Casapalca to the next village below it, called Pomacancha or Chicle, there are two leagues of good road; and here green barley may be sometimes had to feed the hungry cattle, that are often nearly famished by the time they have arrived this far, after having crossed the Cordillera.

From Chicle to San Mateo, a distance of three leagues, there are two roads,—one by a famous steep or cuesta, and the other through a picturesque but rugged ravine along the windings of the river,—both of which we took notice of in describing the general features of the Sierra. San Mateo is a muleteer village like that of Obrajillo already described, and very much resembles it in climate and productions, though the temperature of the air may be a little colder here than at Obrajillo.

In crossing by the high mountain-path from Chicle to San Mateo, we observed that where the ascent commences on the higher side, or that nearest the Cordillera, the rock at the base of the mountain consists of porphyry; but, as we ascend the great cuesta, the precipice assumes the character of porphyritic green-stone. At the base of the descent on the lower, or San Mateo side of the mountain, there is by the road-side a projection of rock which has the appearance of mica-slate, but of which none of our travellers took up a specimen; as by this time the day was far gone, and both men and cattle were fatigued, and anxious to reach the lodgings for the night in time to provide convenient accommodation.

From San Mateo to the next stage, or the village of San Juan de Matucana, the distance is four very long leagues, mostly through a narrow and rock-bound ravine.

About a quarter of a league below San Mateo, green-stone rock discovers itself by the way-side; and, soon after we pass this crag, we cross the first of three bridges that are thrown over the river within the distance of little more than half a league between the first and last, on account of the narrowness of the ravine, that sometimes on the one side, sometimes on the other, hardly leaves space for a mule-road. Before crossing, in our descent, the first bridge, the rock is of limestone; but, on having at this place passed the water to the opposite side, the rock which presents itself is trap, and it continues nearly all the way from the first to the third or lowest bridge, where we meet with quartz, rising in very perpendicular and lofty masses. The rafters of the bridge rest on a projecting part of this towering cliff on the one side, and on the other on a corresponding projection of a formidable hill of porphyry opposed to it.

The next variety of rock is one of trap formation; it appears about half-way between San Mateo and Matucana, and throws off a great quantity of fragments of a slaty appearance. On the lower side it is flanked by a hill of porphyritic green-stone, which continues to within half a league of Matucana. This mass also throws off an immense quantity of dÉbris. The porphyritic green-stone is followed by trachyte porphyry, the rock of which commences a short way above the village of Matucana, or San Juan de Matucana; but, before the junction of these rocks takes place, the road-way is intersected by a wedge or angle composed of syenetic green-stone, or porphyry with actynolite.

Having left Matucana (which is a considerable village enjoying a mild atmosphere, with some open ground around it,) for Surco, two or three leagues lower down, porphyry continues all the distance between these two villages. It throws off large fragments or masses, that nearly block up the road and bed of the river.

Surco is a small village, which possesses the temperature of Yaso on the Canta road; and, like it, is notorious for its waters producing the disease called verrugas, or warty excrescences. From Surco to a league and a half, or thereabouts, below it, we have trachyte porphyry; and, as we ride along, it becomes gradually coarser-grained, till each grain at length appears as large as a hazel-nut. It is succeeded by felspar porphyry, which extends along the side of the ravine in which we travel to the extent of about two leagues and a half, or a league below the village called Cocachacra, situated three leagues lower down the river or ravine than Surco. Cocachacra, within twelve leagues of the capital, is surrounded by fruit-trees; and here the traveller may recline at his ease in the grateful shade, while refreshment may be procured for man and beast.

From one league below Cocachacra we have syenite extending the distance of half a league by our way. It is followed by syenetic granite, and continues for some distance with a varying aspect, till it runs gradually into the coarse granite, which also appears in large loose blocks heaped on the face of the naked mountains between Saint Ana and Chaclacayo as we enter the headland of the Vale of Rimac.

The above-named villages of Chaclacayo (six leagues from the city), Cocachacra, Surco, Matucana, and San Mateo, afford successive stages, and gradations of changes of air and climate to invalids from Lima, who are too enfeebled, or otherwise find it not convenient, to proceed beyond San Mateo, or to cross the Cordillera by Yauli for Tarma, nineteen leagues to the north-east of San Mateo.