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 they will live where mules cannot stand the meager forage. The principal market for the sale of asses coming from Susques and other parts of the Argentine puna is Talina in the province of Sud-Chichas, Bolivia, close to the frontier. Rarely do the Indians of Susques go farther north, to the great Bolivian fairs, as those of Uyuni. They exchange their asses, llamas, and sheep for coca, hats, musical instruments made by the Indians of Bolivia, and the like.

An important part of the commerce of the Indians of Sus- ques is in salt gathered “raw” in certain salars, where it has crystallized out in a nearly pure state. The basin of Salinas Grandes has such a deposit. It is an immense horizontal bed of salt, varying in thickness from a thin crust to one that is two feet thick with an extent of 1500 square kilometers. There are many other salars or salinas of larger or smaller extent throughout the Puna. I[n the pre-Hispanic period Salinas Grandes furnished the inhabitants of the valley of Jujuy and Salta all the salt that they required; and this it has continued to do even down to our times, for it is cheaper from this source than if imported by rail. The method of extraction is primitive. The Indians who live in the Quebrada del Toro leave their homes and travel 150 kilometers (g0 miles) to the salt beds, driving a train of 10 or 20 asses. Llamas are but little employed for transport at the present time. An Indian takes along his whole family at times, at other times two or three Indians join to make the journey, each one with four or five asses. The camps of troops engaged in the business are in- teresting to see. Blocks of salt are arranged in piles; the family sit about the fire and roast their maize. The llamas graze near by or are secured in the usual way by a rope of twisted wool run about the necks of a herd standing heads-in, the stiff- necked beasts being so stupidly dignified as never to think of dodging under the rope! The Indians cut the salt in blocks a foot square, weighing 40 to 50 pounds, put one on each flank of the ass or the llama, and take the pack train to the town