temporal artery. This sudden difficulty of respiration is supposed to be
caused by occasional exhalations of metalliferous vapour, which, being
inhaled into the lungs, causes a strong feeling of suffocation.

During certain months of the year, tremendous hail-storms occur. They have
fallen with such violence that the army has been obliged to halt, and the
men being compelled to hold up their knapsacks to protect their faces,
have had their hands so severely bruised and cut by large hail-stones as
to bleed copiously.

Thunder-storms are also particularly severe in the elevated regions. The
electric fluid is seen to fall around, in a manner unknown in other parts
of the world, and frequently causes loss of life. Such storms have often
burst at some distance below their feet, as the army climbed the lofty
ridges of the Andes.

The distressing fatigues of the most difficult marches in Europe cannot
perhaps be compared to those which the patriot soldiers underwent in the
campaign of 1824. From Caxamarca (memorable for the seizure and death of
Atuhualpa) to Cuzco, the whole line of the road (with the exception of the
plain between Pasco and the vicinity of Tarma, twenty leagues in extent,
and the valley of Xauxa) presents a continuation of rugged and fatiguing
ascents and declivities. That these difficulties do not diminish between
Cuzco and Potosi may be inferred from the following fact:--

When general Cordova's division marched from Cuzco to Puno, it halted at
Santa Rosa. During the night there was a heavy fall of snow. They
continued their march the next morning. The effects of the rays of the sun
reflected from the snow upon the eyes, produces a disease, which the
Peruvians call _surumpi_. It occasions blindness, accompanied by
excruciating pains. A pimple forms in the eye-ball, and causes an itching,
pricking pain, as though needles were continually piercing it. The
temporary loss of sight is occasioned by the impossibility of opening the
eye-lids for a single moment, the smallest ray of light being absolutely
insupportable. The only relief is a poultice of snow, but as that melts
away the tortures return. With the exception of twenty men and the guides,
who knew how to guard against the calamity, the whole division were struck
blind three leagues distant from the nearest human habitation. The guides
galloped on to a village in advance, and brought out a hundred Indians to
assist in leading the men. Many of the suffer