ANDEAN SILVER AND ELECTRICITY.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XLI, Issue 2208, 15 August 1910, Page 2

ANDEAN SILVER AND ELECTRICITY.

Peru, always a land of adventure, has never offered more of such than it does to-day, when, within it, the eni gineer in subjugating some of the : greatest mountains and rivers on earth to much more useful purpose than Pizarro conquered the Peruvian Empire of the Incas. Some of the undertakings now in progress would appear impossible if set down as fiction. Thus to unlock an ancient Inca silver mine, over two miles in air, by means of one of the hitherto mysterious sources of the mighty Amazon is a kind of adventure to find in romance rather than in real life. But in Peru such a scheme in an actuality upon which much money and energy are being expended. The routes by which the scene of this remarkable undertaking may be reached are as astonishing as everything else about it. The most direct way to it from Europe is to ascend the Amazon for about 2,300 miles from the Atlantic by the ocean steamers which ascend the stream for that distance to Iquitos, in Peru. Near Iquitos the Amazon receives the Ucayale, along whose course the route runs for another 800 miles by river steamer, by canoe, and on mule back, to a point near Pisquitini, where the Andean torrent called the Tamho, or Apurimac, joins the Ucayale, Up to the last-named it Is necessary to scramble for another 150 miles or so to a height of about 16,800 ft. above sea level. There, high amongst the stupendous ranges, overlooking the ancient Inca capital of Ouzco, is Lake Huallacho, and overlooking the lake, are the silver mines which were wrought from prehistoric times onwards until the Spanish conquerors worked them out or imagined they had done so. But Ouzco, in a direct line, is only 250 miles from the Pacific and Lake Huallacho is a good deal less! Therefore, though less direct, the shorter route to the latter, so far as the line is concerned, is to go through the Straits of Magellan or round Cape Horn, to Mollendo on the Peruvian coast not far from the Chilian frontier. Mollendo is not an inviting spot, and its roadstead Is so open that, in landing on its quay, visitors may expect a ducking, if not | worse, but it is the shore terminus i of a daring railway that crosses the Andes to Lake Titicaca, only 160 miles inland, but almost 13,000 feet above sea-level. Up this ladder-like ! line the traveller for Huallacho | climbs to Lagunillas, or to one of the other roadside stations about halfj way to Puno, on Titicaca. There the | real troubles of the journey begin. | Previously the traveller has only bad j to remain in steamer or train to be carried onwards, but when he steps out at the station he is still 120 to 150 miles from Huallacho, and the upper portion of that distance is above the snowline. He will have to ride either a Llama or a mule, and the former—popularly regarded as a mixture of camel and sheep—cannot be recommended as a steed, though it is extremely useful as a bearer of other than living burdens. Amongst other objectionable habits, it is given to turning its head and expectorating into the rider’s face when it considers that :t has gone far enough for one -day. Whether this is better than being piiched over the head of a mule that thinks it has done all it should is a matter of opinion. Anyhow, the traveller can have his choice. Between the railway and Huallacho there are no roads worth calling such ; simply tracks meandering across the high plateau or ascending into the ranges as yard-wide shelves along the dizzy sides of sheer precipices. For men and their baggage ! to traverse these is bad enough ; to transport heavy machinery along them is infinitely worse. Yet that is what has been accomplished. Plainly, the silver of Lake Huallacbo must be wrought by means available within its neighbourhood. The Spaniards closed the mines when they had killed off the unfortunate natives whom they forced to work within them, or when revolution cut off the supply of compulsory labour. Coal exists in the ranges, and is obtainable, cheaply enough, at Mollendo, but the cost of its transport to the mines is prohibitive. Thus the wealth of silver they contain must have remained useless had not the daring idea of yoking the source of the Amazon for the production of electricity been formulated and carried out. Machinery made in England, was shipped to Mollendo, sent up by rail into the Andes and transported to Huallacho from the nearest stations. This sounds comparatively simple, but the matter assumes a different aspect when it is remembered that, in an installation large enough to supply light and power to a good-sized town, no single piece of the machinery could be larger than a llama or a mule would consent to carry. Moreover, all the mechanism had to be fitted together at an altitude so high that the foreign engineers employed suffered sevj erely not only from cold —the night ! temperature frequently approaching | zero —but from soroche, or mountain sickness. Yet the difficulties have been overcome, so that now the waters of Lake Huallacho of some falls near it on the Santiago river, and of the Apurimac—here no bigger than a Scottish burn, but destined ultimately to reach the. Atlantic, over 3,000 miles distant, in the tawny flood of the Amazon—have all been bridled to provide " white power " to work the white metal. The electricity generated by the turbines and dynamos set i

in them is carried by cables to the mines set amongst the snows above them, to the concentrating plant where the ore is treated in an upland valley, and it will also ultimately supply the locomotives on the railway which is being built to link both. Some day. perhaps, the same power will swing the concentrates by an aerial line down to the MollendoTiticaca railway, but for the present these have to be sent out by llama or mule transport. As it is, however this combination of Andean electricity and Andean silver is as astonishing a mining adventure as this century has seen. " Weekly Telegraph."