The Andes of southern Peru . families of Machi-gangas spend the wet sea-son when the lower riveris in flood (Fig. 21). Thegrass lands will not yieldcorn and coca because thesoil is too thin, infertile,and dry. The Indianfarms are therefore all inthe forest and begin al-most at its very finally terminates along peninsula of grass-covered country. Below this point the heat and humidity rapidlyincrease; the rains are heavier and more frequent; the countrybecomes almost uninliabitable for stock; transportation ratesdouble. Here is the undisputed realm of the forest with new kindsof trees
The Andes of southern Peru . families of Machi-gangas spend the wet sea-son when the lower riveris in flood (Fig. 21). Thegrass lands will not yieldcorn and coca because thesoil is too thin, infertile,and dry. The Indianfarms are therefore all inthe forest and begin al-most at its very finally terminates along peninsula of grass-covered country. Below this point the heat and humidity rapidlyincrease; the rains are heavier and more frequent; the countrybecomes almost uninliabitable for stock; transportation ratesdouble. Here is the undisputed realm of the forest with new kindsof trees and products and a distinctive type of forest-dwellingIndian. At the next low pass is the skull of an Italian who had mur-dered his companions and stolen a seasons picking of rubber, at-tempting to escape by canoe to the lower Urubamba from thePongo de Mainique. The Machigangas overtook him in theirswiftest dugouts, spent a night with him, and the next morningshot him in the back and returned with their rightful property—. FiQ. 55—Map to show the relation of thegrasslands of the dry lower portion of theUrubamba Valley (unshaded) to the forestedlands at higher elevations (shaded). See for climatic conditions. Patches and slendertongues of woodland occur below the maintimber line and patches of grassland above it. 82 THE ANDES OF SOUTHERN PERU a harvest of rubber. For more than a decade foreigners have beencoming down from the plateau to exploit them. They are an inde-pendent and free tribe and have simple yet correct ideas of rightand wrong. Their chief, a man of great strength of characterand one of the most likeable men I have known, told me that heplaced the skull in the pass to warn away the whites who came torob honest Indians. The Santa Ana Valley between the Canyon of Torontoy andthe heavy forest belt below Eosalina is typical of many of theeastern valleys of Peru, both in its physical setting and in itseconomic and labor systems. Westward are the outliers of
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidandeso, booksubjectgeology
