ssed through more or less shallow
cuttings--and with just the right amount of camber to quickly throw off
the rainwater into the broad gutters or watercourses that were built on
either side of it. The most remarkable feature of the road, however,
was that it was paved throughout with broad flags of stone, which, like
the blocks of which the house was built, were so accurately fitted
together that the joints could only be found with difficulty.

The young Englishman spent some three hours sauntering along that
magnificent road, enjoying the pure air, the genial temperature, and the
sight of the superb panorama that hemmed him in on every side, pausing
often to note the clever system of irrigation adopted by the
inhabitants, whereby every square inch of cultivable soil could at any
moment receive precisely the right quantity of water to satisfy its
requirements; admiring, with the eye of an engineer, the workmanship
displayed in the construction of the ample culverts whereby all excess
of water was promptly discharged into the lake; and marvelling at the
varied nature of the agricultural products of the valley; for it seemed
to him that, in the comparatively circumscribed space between the margin
of the lake and the highest point on the mountain slope to which the
barest handful of soil could be induced to cling, there were to be found
examples of every vegetable product known to the sub-tropical and
temperate zones, while it was a never-ceasing source of astonishment to
him that such enormous numbers of cattle and sheep were apparently able
to find ample sustenance on the proportionately small quantity of land
allotted to pasture. What seemed to him somewhat remarkable was that,
while cattle, sheep, and even horses were apparently plentiful in the
valley, he saw no llamas; but it was afterwards explained to him that
the climate there was altogether too mild for them, and that the
enormous herds owned by the inhabitants were kept in the highlands on
the other side of the encircling mountains.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

THE CITY OF THE SUN.

On the afternoon of the fourth day following Tiahuana's departure, about
an hour before sunset, as Escombe was about to enter the house after a
somewhat longer walk than usual in the valley, he paused for a moment at
the head of the footpath to take a last, long look at the lovely
landscape, with the leading features of which he was now becoming
tolerably familiar, when his wandering