ands to these elevations are unable
to run with speed for a long time, but those which are born and reared
in this region easily pursue wild animals.

When the New World was discovered the llama was the only animal used
there as a beast of burden. Thousands of these diminutive creatures are
still used for transporting ore and bullion in the Andes. Each animal
can carry a load of seventy-five pounds or more. This sure-footed animal
can travel with its load about fourteen miles a day.

[Illustration: Llamas resting]

Lake Titicaca is one of the famous lakes of the world. Its name means
tin-stone and was doubtless derived from the tin ore found in the
vicinity. The lake has an elevation of twelve thousand five hundred and
fifty feet, and although nine streams run into it, only one, the
Desaguadero, flows out, carrying its waters to Lake Poopo, a small body
of salt water nearly three hundred miles south. Lake Titicaca has the
same surface level both summer and winter. The outflow never reaches the
sea; it is lost by evaporation mainly in Lake Poopo, but the latter
frequently overflows into the salt marshes lying to the southward.

Though thin ice may be found in the quiet bays and inlets nearly every
morning during the year, the expanse of the lake is never frozen even in
the severest weather. A peculiarity about the lake is that not only will
iron not rust when left in its waters, but that which was before rusted
soon loses its scales of rust after being immersed a few days.

Several steamers ply on the lake carrying chiefly ore and wool. Some of
the islands in the lake are inhabited by Indians who eke out a
precarious living.

A civilization antedating that of the Incas formerly occupied the region
about the lake, as is proved by the remarkable ruins along the shores
concerning which the natives told the early Spaniards that they had no
record. Three square miles are covered by these ruins, whose walls were
made of immense blocks of stone most accurately fitted together, thus
giving evidence of the great skill in stone-cutting possessed by the
pre-Inca people.

The Inca rulers had beautiful palaces and other edifices on some of the
islands. Titicaca Island was regarded as sacred, and at the time of the
Spanish conquest was the site of a large temple richly ornamented with
gold and silver.

Prospecting in the Andes is attended with great hardships. Few wild
animals can be found to furnish food. Food and utensils m