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annual yield of coca throughout South America, including Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Pasto, may be estimated at more than 30,000,000 lbs. At Tacna the tambor of 50 lbs. is worth 9 to 12 dollars, the fluctuations in price being caused by the perishable nature of the article, which cannot be kept in stock for any length of time. The average duration of coca in a sound state, on the coast, is about five months, after which time it is said to lose flavour, and is rejected by the Indians as worthless.

The reliance on the extraordinary virtues of the coca-leaf, amongst the Peruvian Indians, is so strong, that, in the Huanuco province, they believe that, if a dying man can taste a leaf placed on his tongue, it is a sure sign of his future happiness."

No Indian is without his chuspa or coca-bag, made of llama-cloth, dyed red and blue in patterns, with woollen tassels hanging from it. He carries it over one shoulder, suspended at his side; and, in taking coca, he sits down, puts his chuspa before him, and places the leaves in his mouth one by one, chewing and turning them till he forms a ball. He then applies a small quantity of carbonate of potash, prepared by burning the stalk of the quinoa-plant, and mixing the ashes with lime and water; thus forming cakes called llipta, which are dried for use, and also kept in the chuspa.1 This operation is called acullicar in Bolivia and Southern Peru, and chacchar in the North. They usually perform it three times in a day's work, and every Indian consumes two or three ounces of coca daily.

In the mines of the cold region of the Andes the Indians derive great enjoyment from the use of coca; the running

9 Poeppig, Reise, ii. p. 252; also Van Tschudi, p. 455.

In Caravaya the lipta is made into a pointed lump, and kept in a horn, or sometimes in a silver receptacle, in the chuspa. With it there is

also a pointed instrument, with which the llipta is scratched, and the powder is applied to the pellet of coca-leaves. In some provinces they keep a small calabash full of lime in their chuspas, called iscupurus.

chasqui, or messenger, in his long journeys over the mountains and deserts, and the shepherd watching his flock on the lofty plains, has no other nourishment than is afforded by his chuspa of coca, and a little maize. The smell of the leaf is agreeable and aromatic, and when chewed it gives out a grateful fragrance, accompanied by a slight irritation, which excites the saliva. Its properties are to enable a greater amount of fatigue to be borne with less nourishment, and to prevent the occurrence of difficulty of respiration in ascending steep mountain-sides. Tea made from the leaves has much the taste of green tea, and, if taken at night, is much more effectual in keeping people awake. Applied externally coca moderates the rheumatic pains caused by cold, and cures headaches. When used to excess it is, like everything else, prejudicial to the health, yet, of all the narcotics used by man, coca is the least injurious, and the most soothing and invigorating.

The active principle of the coca-leaf has, a few years ago, been separated by Dr. Niemann, and called cocaine. Pure cocaine crystallizes with difficulty, is but slightly soluble in water, but is easily dissolved in alcohol, and still more easily in ether.2

I chewed coca, not constantly, but very frequently, from the day of my departure from Sandia, and, besides the agreeable soothing feeling it produced, I found that I could endure long abstinence from food with less inconvenience than I should otherwise have felt, and it enabled me to ascend precipitous mountain-sides with a feeling of lightness and elasticity, and without losing breath. This latter quality ought to recommend its use to members of the Alpine Club, and to walking tourists in general, though the sea voyage would probably cause the leaves to lose much of their virtue. To the

2 Bonplandia, viii. p. 355-78.

Peruvian Indian, however, who can procure it within a few weeks of its being picked, the coca is a solace which is easily procured, which affords great enjoyment, and which has a most beneficial effect.3

3 The information in this chapter is derived from personal observation; from the essay on coca by Dr. Don Hipolito Unanue, in Nos. 3 to 8 of the Museo Erulito; and from the works treating of coca, by Van Tschudi, Travels in

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Peru, p. 455; Dr. Poeppig, Reise in Peru, ii. p. 248; Dr. Weddell, Voyage dans le Nord de Bolivie, p. 516; the Bonplandia; and a memorandum by Dr. Booth, of La Paz. These are the best authorities on the subject.

CHAPTER XV.

CARAVAYA.

Chinchona forests of Tambopata.

On the morning of April 27th we crossed a rude bridge over the Huari-huari, and began to make our way up the face of the steep mountain on the other side, first through a thick forest, and then up into the grassy highlands, until, after several halts, we at length reached the summit of the ridge, though a mountain-peak still rose up in our rear. From this point there was a most extensive panoramic view. A sea of ridges rose one behind the other, with stupendous snowy peaks in the background, and, more than a thousand feet below, the rivers of Sandia and Huari-huari, reduced to mere glittering threads, could be seen winding through the tortuous ravines. We had now reached the pajonales, and were on a ridge or back-bone between the rivers of Laccani and San Lorenzo, two tributaries of the Huari-huari; a grass-covered and comparatively cold region, interspersed with thickets, forming the crest of the tropical forests which line the sides of the ravines through which the rivers wind, far below.

When there is sunshine, these pajonales form a very pleasant landscape: the broad expanse of grass, dotted over with a graceful milk-white flower called 'sayri-sayri, is intersected by dense thickets, some in the gullies and watercourses, and others in clumps, like those in an English park, the palms and tree-ferns raising their graceful heads above the rest of the trees. Here and there a black pool of sweet water is met with at the edge of the thicket, with chinchona and hua

turu-trees drooping over it. Everywhere there is an abrupt boundary to the foreground in the profound forest-covered ravines, with splendid views of mountain ranges in the distance.

The vegetation of the thickets in these pajonales consists of palms, tree-ferns, Melastomacea (Lasiandra fontanesiana) with bright showy flowers, exceedingly pretty Ericaceae (Gaultheria), Vaccinia, the huaturu or incense-tree in great quantities, and Chinchona, chiefly consisting of C. Caravayensis (Wedd.), with a few plants of Calisaya Josephiana, but the latter are much more rare here than in the neighbourhood of Paccay-samana. The C. Caravayensis, a worthless species, has panicles of beautiful deep roseate flowers, large coarse hairy capsules, and lanceolate leaves, above smooth with purple veins, and hairy on the under side. It can probably bear greater cold than any other chinchona.'

The afternoon was passed in searching for plants of the shrubby Calisaya, but with little success. During our examination of the thickets we found a single specimen, evidently belonging to the Calisaya species, but in the form of a tree, and not of a shrub. Its height was eighteen feet six inches; its girth, two feet from the ground, eight and a half inches; and the position in which it was growing was 5680 feet above the level of the sea. I was uncertain whether it belonged to the tree variety (Calisaya vera, Wedd.), or to the shrub (Calisaga Josephiana); for Dr. Weddell only gives the height of the latter at eight or ten feet.

Near the banks of one of the black pools, overhung by spreading branches, we found a shed, a roof of coarse grass raised on four sticks four and a half feet high, and here we encamped for the night. It had been made by some party of

1 Dr. Weddell, the discoverer of this species, had never seen it in flower. I brought home leaves, flowers, and

fruit of the C. Caravayensis, which are now in the herbarium at Kew.

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