s--Winds--Change of Seasons--the
Garuas--The Lomas--Mammalia--Birds--Amphibia.

The coast, southward of Lima, is similar in aspect, climate, and
character, to those parts north of the city which have just been
described. Fruitful valleys, villages, and plantations, commodious
sea-ports, and vast sandy wastes, alternate one with the other. Heat,
sometimes almost insupportable, is succeeded by chilly and unhealthy
mists; whilst here and there the scattered monuments of the wealth and
greatness of bygone ages present a remarkable and painful contrast to
present poverty and misery.

Proceeding southward of Lima by way of Lurin, we arrive at Chilca, a
wretched village situated on a soil which affords nothing to supply the
wants of human existence. It appears an incomprehensible mystery that
man should have fixed his abode on a spot where Nature has granted
nothing for his nourishment, not even a drop of pure water; whilst at
the distance of a few miles, luxuriant valleys offer, spontaneously,
those products which the most laborious toil must fail to extort from
the ungrateful soil of Chilca. The hope of wealth from commercial
speculation or mining industry has peopled many inhospitable shores, and
has raised populous towns on barren deserts; but at Chilca there are no
such stimuli of interests. Nevertheless, they may possibly have existed
in former ages, for the numerous ruins scattered around the village
tend to confirm the opinion that the population was very extensive under
the government of the Incas. The force of custom and of local attachment
which frequently chains man to the spot where his progenitors have lived
happily, is all that can bind the natives of Chilca to their miserable
dwelling-place. In few villages, as in Chilca, have the Indians for more
than 300 years so carefully avoided mixing with people of other races.
They employ themselves in plaiting straw for hats and cigar-cases. The
latter they make in a singularly beautiful style with white and colored
straw, which they plait into various figures and patterns--sometimes
into names, and even lines of poetry. Some of these cigar-cases sell for
upwards of a hundred dollars. Fishing is a less profitable occupation to
the people of Chilca, or, as they are called in the country, the
Chilquenos; for, owing to the great distance, only certain kinds of fish
can be sent to the Lima market. Near the village there is a bed of very
strong red-colored salt, which is