Lake Titicaca

“ Lake Titicaca is very deep in some places, the deepest part being on the Bolivian side; but in others it is so shoal that there is only just room to force the balsas through the rushes. The winds blow from the eastward all the year round, sometimes in strong gales, so as to raise a very heavy sea, during the day-time; but at night they are occasionally westerly. Along the western shore there are acres of tall rushes, and the east winds blow all the dead rushes to the western side, mixing with the living beds, and forming a dense tangled mass. ”

“ 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 fill up the lake, they deposit their loads of earthy matter on the western and northern side, which disturb animal life. ”

“ Neither shape of water-way, nor the sweetness of its fountains, has anything to do with its free use by man. Lake Titicaca is salt. Lake Titicaca, its waters, and its shores, lay within the dominions of both Peru and Bolivia. ”

“ When the wind is contrary the boatmen must pole. They are extremely careful not to fall overboard, for the water in the lake is cold, 55° F., and none of them know how to swim. Lake Titicaca itself never freezes over, although during the winter ice forms at night on the shallow bays and near the shore.
A Lake Titicaca Balsa at Puno
A Step-Topped Niche on the Island of Koati
When the Indians wish to go in the shallowest waters they use a very small balsa not over eight feet long, barely capable of supporting the weight of one man. ”

“ The great elevation makes people suffer from mountain-sickness, and that perhaps deters many travellers from attempting the journey. The railway has to contend with great natural difficulties—land-slides, which often stop traffic for days at a time, being frequent.
From Cuzco I went direct to Lake Titicaca, where more Inca ruins, such as the cylindrical towers of Sillistayni, existed at Puno. Lake Titicaca is a heavenly sheet of water, situated at an elevation by hypsometrical apparatus of 12,202 ft. ”

“ The climate is generally cold, and in the parts bordering on Lake Titicaca are cultivated Peruvian bark, papas, barley, &c. The chief occupation of the inhabitants consists in breeding cattle, sheep, pigs and llamas, and there are many vicunas, deer, partridges and lake fowl, which are caught or killed by the natives; the lake also supplies fish, and by means of it the Indians carry dressed hides, thread, &c., and take in exchange wines, brandies and other commodities from the adjacent districts. ”

“ Certainly no more puzzling key was ever given for the unlocking of a mystery, since the basin of Lake Titicaca is a plateau, some thirteen to fourteen thousand feet above sea-level, where cereals will not ripen, so that only potatoes and a few other roots, along with droves of hardy llamas and alpacas, form the reliance for subsistence of a population which at best is sparse. ”

“ The cargo was on board a heavy, sluggish reed boat, a big affair in which burros and even bullocks are carried to or from these lake islands—of which there are many scattered here and there—and the mainland.
All the western slopes of the Andes are treeless, the high plains are treeless, and the few poles that are used in the thatched roofs of the Indian huts are dragged out from the montaña, as the interior over the final Andean passes is called. These skinny little poles are regular articles of trade. Therefore, the Lake Titicaca Indian has evolved his reed canoe and boat. ”

“ Sometimes to the peak of a gable are fastened crosses, tiny flags, or the skulls of animals—probably to avert the Evil Eye or bring good luck. Horseshoes do not seem to be in demand. Horses' skulls, however, are deemed very efficacious.
On the rim of the Titicaca Basin is La Raya. The watershed is so level that it is almost impossible to say whether any particular raindrop will eventually find itself in Lake Titicaca or in the Atlantic Ocean. The water from a spring near the railroad station of Araranca flows definitely to the north. ”

“ People upon the Andes do not multiply if they do not seek the rich lands.
As we ride along the shores of Lake Titicaca, the Indians are seen sucking the juice from the lake rush; they also make salad of it. The cattle and horses wade up to their backs in mud and water after it. The sheep who seem, here in their native soil, glad to get a bite of something green, run down from the parched hills, and feed along shore. The hog, too, comes in for his share. The whole animal kingdom run to the lake for a living. It is a written invitation to navigation and cultivation. ”

“ The country is becoming more cultivated as we proceed south, and cattle are more numerous. We find nearly the same dry, burnt-up vegetation and dusty roads, though the air feels moist enough for green fields of grass.
Halting at the small adobe-built town of Juliaca, with a large church as usual, our baggage-mules were changed. We spent the night at Caracota, and changed mules again at Pancarcolla. To the left of us we beheld the deep blue waters of the great southern lake Titicaca. The east wind troubled its waters; the white-capped waves reminded us of the trade-wind region of the ocean. ”

“ In North America, where there are more lakes than in any other part of the world, not one of this kind is known, at least if we except two small collections of water formed by rivulets, the one near Guatimapo, and the other some leagues from Realnuevo, both in Mexico. But in South America, at Peru, there are two contiguous lakes, one of which, lake Titicaca, is very large, and receives a river whose source is not very remote from Cusco, and from which no river issues: there is one smaller in Tucuman, which receives the river Sala ”

“ Bolivians give the altitude of this mountain as 24,000 feet. Besides the Cordillera Real the Department includes Lake Titicaca, or as much of it as does not belong to Peru. The lake is remarkable as being the highest in the world on which steamers regularly ply, 12,500 feet is an accepted figure; 12,545 is also given. The lake has an area of 3200 square miles; it is about 120 miles long, 34-44 wide, and 330 feet deep, in places nearly 1000. Other figures are 145 miles long and 69 broad, average depth 492 feet; temperature of water 48°; annual rainfall about 78 inches. ”

“ This Deity is said to have created the sun, moon, and stars, or to have caused them to rise out of Lake Titicaca. He also created men of stone at Tiahuanacu, or of clay; making them pass under the earth, and appear again out of caves, tree-trunks, rocks, or fountains in the different provinces which were to be peopled by their descendants. But this seems to be a later attempt to reconcile the ancient Titicaca myth with the local worship of natural objects as ancestors or founders of their race, among the numerous subjugated tribes ”

“ Although starfish are common enough in the Andes and a seahorse has actually found its resting-place in La Paz, this does not alter the fact that scientific investigators have never found any strictly marine fauna in Lake Titicaca. ”

“ After the lapse of ages, time marking no improvement, there appeared one day on the bank of Lake Titicaca two personages, male and female, Manco Capac and Mama Ocollo, of majestic mien and clad in glistening whiteness. They declared themselves children of the sun, sent by the parent of light to enlighten the human race. From Lake Titicaca they went northward a few leagues and founded the city of Cuzco, whither the chiefs throughout that region assembled and acknowledged the sovereignty of the celestial visitants. ”

“ At sunrise on a first of April, there appeared, suddenly as Manco Capac at the lake Titicaca, a man in cream-colors, at the water-side in the city of St. ”

“ Pah!
"But among the hills and forests around this Lake Titicaca is the paradise of the hunter who has a bit of sand and grit in his substance, and is not afraid to walk a whole mile away from a cow's tail.
"No, there are no dangerous Indians that ever I came across among the mountains and glens; but as you never know what may happen, you've got to keep your cartridges free from damp.
"What kind of game? Well, I was going to say pretty much of all sorts. We haven't got giraffes nor elephants, it is true, nor do we miss them much. ”

“ Both Humboldt and Darwin found shells, once crawling on the bottom of the sea, now embedded fourteen thousand feet above its level.
Small lakes are sources of small rivers, by which they are emptied. But great Titicaca forms no stream at all. Its outlet has no outlet of its own. The rush of nauseous water is poured into a shallow lake-twin not far away—Poopo, through whose mysterious whirlpools the water drops back again in subterranean escapes. This tumultuous torrent, the Desaguadero, was spanned in former days by a bridge of reeds. ”

“ Asia contains a great many others besides. South America contains the Lake Titicaca, which has no efflux, though it is the receiver of another lake. These collections of water appear to belong to the interior of great continents; they are placed on elevated plains, which have no sensible declivity towards the sea, and thus afford no outlet. With respect to those situated in a hot climate, evaporation is sufficient to carry off their excess of water.
The physical phenomena which certain lakes present, have always excited the astonishment of the multitude. ”

“ The outlet of Lake Titicaca, the Desaguadero river, flows southward into Lake Pampa-Aullaguas, or Poöpo, on the eastern side of the department near the Cordillera de los Frailes. Lake Pöpo is 12,139 ft. ”

“ No river, except the Marañon, breaks through it either to the east or west, while more than twenty coast streams rise on its slopes and force their way through the maritime chain. The Central Cordillera consists mainly of crystalline and volcanic rocks, on each side of which are aqueous, in great part jurassic, strata thrown up almost vertically. In 14° 30′ S. the central chain is connected with the Eastern Andes by the transverse mountain-knot of Vilcanota, the peak of that name being 17,651 ft. above the sea. The great inland basin of Lake Titicaca is thus formed. ”

“ Low lands in proximity to the sea, especially in wet climates, have numerous lakes, as, for instance, Florida. Lakes may be either fresh or salt, according to the nature of the climate, some being much more salt than the sea itself. They occur in all altitudes; Lake Titicaca in South America is 12,500 ft. above sea-level, and Yellowstone Lake in the United States is 7741 ft. above the sea; on the other hand, the surface of the Caspian Sea is 86 ft., the Sea of Tiberias 682 ft. ”

“ In the latter continent it was confined to two totally foreign tribes, the Muyscas, whose empire, called that of the Zacs, was in the neighborhood of Bogota, and the Peruvians, who in their two related divisions of Quichuas and Aymaras extended their language and race along the highlands of the Cordilleras from the equator to the thirtieth degree of south latitude. Lake Titicaca seems to have been the cradle of their civilization, offering another example how inland seas and well-watered plains favor the change from a hunting to an agricultural life. ”

“ The Nicaragua Canal plan is a very different one. The distance across the Isthmus at the point chosen for this route is much greater than for the Panama Canal, and yet there are fewer difficulties in the way. Although the route is one hundred and seventy miles long, there will have to be only twenty-seven miles of actual canal and only six locks. This is on account of the use of Nicaragua Lake and the rivers. The lake is the largest of any lying between the Great Lakes of the United States and Lake Titicaca in Peru. ”

“ The Montaña, consisting of a region even yet imperfectly known, over which extend unmeasured forests, the home of the jaguar and the chinchilla, of bright-plumed birds and of dreaded serpents. Above these forests stretch the dizzy peaks and the volcanos. The most remarkable natural phenomenon of the country is the lake Titicaca, about seven times as great as the [130] lake of Geneva, not far distant from the ancient capital Cuzco, and serving, like Anahuac, the lake district of Mexico, as the chief focus of Peruvian civilization and religion. ”

“ The women are a little more chunky and rather better featured; they are cheerful, and they look up more—the usual effect of beauty all the world over. The men chew less coca, are stronger for it, and have a much more healthy appearance than the men of Cuzco. As far as I can see, there is very little sickness about Lake Titicaca.
The governor of the town sent to the post-house for our passports; they seem to be very particular with persons going south ”

“ We spent two days sailing on the lake, visiting the famous modern shrine of the Virgin of the Light at Copacavana on the mainland and the famous ancient shrine of the Rock of the Sun and the Wild Cat on the island of Titicaca which has given its name to the lake. When the grey clouds brood low upon the hills, stern and gloomy indeed must be the landscape in this bleak land. But our visit fell in the end of September, the spring of Peru, when such rains as there are had begun to refresh the land after the arid winter. ”