HIGH LIFE IN PERU.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16020, 11 September 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

HIGH LIFE IN PERU.

P-aorE3SOE Alsworth Ross, of the University of Wisconsin, in an article in the Century Magazine, entitled "Peru, the Roof of the Continent," tells of the difficulty of merely sustaining life in the higher , altitudes among the Andes. He says—

.Life at Cerro de Pasco, nearly a league up, is as trying a life under a diving bell at the bottom of the ocean. The new. comer gasps for air like a stranded fish, and wakes up at night gulping mouthful* | out of the thin atmosphere. Three quick ! stops .pat./ you out of breath, and after ! climbing "a flight of stairs you must sit down for a rest. " I know," panted a "tenderfoot," "how I'll feel when I'm eignjy." - ~- No employee is sent up by the company unless he has passed a physician's examination, but occasionally one gets blue in the face and has to be sent down forthwith- Thus the Inca Chronicle often has such items as Jake L., who returned here last April, has been sent home with his heart machinery in bad shape." r v ~i The young fellows play tennis and ball, and even indulge in track athletics; but the pace must be very slow. Singing is not popular, for yon cannot get the breath to hold a note. Pneumonia is sure death here within 48 hours, so that the sufferer must be rushed down to the' sea level in a special train that costs the company? 500 dollars. The typhoid patient, too, must flee, and the Northern women must descend to Lima to bear their babes. • The mining company's Americans are usually big, athletic, deep-chested men, strong of jaw, sinewy of grip, and masterful of manner. They are well paid and looked after, but too many of them squander money and vitality in, fighting off the demon of loneliness.