. Pacific shores from Panama . eptionally favourableauspices. A private car, most comfortable in all itsappointments, was put at our disposal, and in it welived, with two excellent servants to care for us. Instead of leaving Lima by the early morningtrain, as is usually done, our car was attached to theafternoon passenger and left at Chosica for the night,a station about twenty-five miles distant and a lit-tle less than three thousand feet above the sea, usedas a resort, a sort of cure dair, by the dinner we walked about its streets, and, in thesemi-darkness of the tropic night
. Pacific shores from Panama . eptionally favourableauspices. A private car, most comfortable in all itsappointments, was put at our disposal, and in it welived, with two excellent servants to care for us. Instead of leaving Lima by the early morningtrain, as is usually done, our car was attached to theafternoon passenger and left at Chosica for the night,a station about twenty-five miles distant and a lit-tle less than three thousand feet above the sea, usedas a resort, a sort of cure dair, by the dinner we walked about its streets, and, in thesemi-darkness of the tropic night, enjoyed its villasset in palm gardens, their windows and doors wideopen and the occupants sitting upon verandas orchatting in the brightly lighted drawing-rooms. As I awoke in the early morning I could hear ourengine breathlessly climbing from height to height,puffing like a winded horse, and could see in the grey,dim dawn the long fingers of banana-trees swaying inthe breeze and the clustered palms rustling their dry [ 80 ]. On the Oroya Railway THE OROYA RAILWAY leaves. Dark-blue slaty hills shut us in, and at thebottom of the gorge the Rimac stormed along, aroaring torrent. As it grew lighter we reached the first switchback,the only device used on this wonderful road, standardgauge, to overcome the difficulties of climbing thedizzy heights. Here, too, we came upon the firstandeneSy those Inca terraces still in use, irrigated withpainstaking toil by canals that deflect the waters ofthe river along the faces of the cliffs. Below us laythe narrow river valley, divided, like a large greenrelief map, into states and territories by wrigglystone walls, and dotted here and there with cattle,impossibly small. The vegetation was changing. Along the trackgrew strange cacti whose long green fingers stooderect and serried as organ pipes. Loquats and figsand masses of wild heliotrope were still to be seen,though we had passed the six-thousand-foot level. We slowed down at Matucana while
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