Page:Bolivia (1893; Bureau of the American Republics).djvu/66

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BOLIVIA.

chief products are lemons, paltas, grapes, figs, peaches, apples, plums, cherries, quinces, potatoes, and all kinds of garden vegetables; rice, barley, wheat, and maize are also extensively cultivated.

The department of Cochabamba is the great wheat and maize growing section of the country, and is therefore properly denominated the "Granary of Bolivia." It is also noted for its fine horses bred from imported stock from Peru and Chile, while in Sucre are found the finest imported coach and saddle horses in the Republic. Cattle and horses are also numerous throughout this entire range. The forests of Chuquisaca and Tarija, which extend down to the wooded plains of the Gran Chaco Boreal, and those of the La Paz provinces of Inquisivi and Yungas, adjoining the department of Cochabamba on the west, are the homes of a great variety, in size and plumage, of humming birds, pigeons, quails, pheasants, parrots, paroquets, and of innumerable butterflies of indescribable beauty. Monkeys, wild cats, skunks, rabbits, vizcachas (Peruvian hare), foxes, and deer are also numerous.

FRIGID ZONE.

This range embraces that portion of the country situated between 12,000 and 16,000 to 16,500 feet above the sea. Its most important division is the great western plateau, or the Titicaca basin as it is more generally called, lying within the rich mineral department of La Paz, Oruro, and Potosi. As the cold winds blowing from the snowy summits of the Andes sweep in unbroken currents across this treeless plain at an altitude of from 12,000 to 13,000 feet, the climate is dry and generally cold, while that of the heads of the valleys (cabecera de valle) is considerably milder and the soil much more productive. Here, the natives, who, for the most part, are industrious, are alternately sowing and reaping throughout the year.

Although the lofty table-lands of this region are, to the casual observer, apparently nearly destitute of vegetation, they none the