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46 The fishes and reptiles are not numerous, and our collection of the former showed a poverty in species which is most remarkable, and this is also accompanied by a comparative poverty in the number of specimens, except in certain localities. There are in all only six species of fishes, Cyprinoids and Siluroids, a remarkably small number for a sheet of water as large as Lake Erie.

In the absence of trees, the totora, which grows spontaneously and in great abundance in the shallow waters of the lake, is applied by the Indians to perhaps as many uses as the bamboo in India. With this they cover their houses, construct their balsas and sails, make beautiful baskets, table and floor mats, matting as beds for the poor, carpets for the better classes, and strips of woven totora for all classes on which to rest when traveling through the mountains.

This zone embraces the loftiest mountains of Bolivia. It begins at an altitude of from 16,000 to 16,500 feet, and terminates in the regions of eternal ice and snow, extending southward from the immense glacier fields of the majestic Illampu, or Mount Sorato, to the towering heights of the beautiful Illimani 40 miles to the south of La Paz.

In the upper ranges of these inhospitable mountains, feed the wild vicuña and guanaco, fleet of foot and rich in fur, and in the lower ranges, the alpaca and llama. Along the mountain passes and in the lower levels, grow stunted shrubs and short white grass upon which the muleteers and llama drivers feed their animals when crossing the Andes, [sic] Rich deposits of silver, tin, bismuth, and considerable gold are also met with in this zone of production, while its crowning heights are not only perpetually covered with snow, but abound in solid beds and columns of ice from whence the markets of the country are supplied throughout the year.