Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/41

Rh the leaves), are the only trees of the Titicaca plateau. Crops of potatoes are raised, forming the staple food, with the oca and some other edible roots. But cereals will not ripen, and the green barley is only used for fodder. The yutu, a kind of partridge, and a large rodent called viscacha, abound in the mountains, while the lake yields fish of various kinds, and is frequented by waterfowl.

Such a region is only capable of sustaining a scanty population of hardy mountaineers and labourers. The mystery consists in the existence of ruins of a great city on the southern side of the lake, the builders being entirely unknown.

The city covered a large area, built by highly skilled masons, and with the use of enormous stones. One stone is 36 feet long by 7, weighing 170 tons, another 26 feet by 16 by 6. Apart from the monoliths of ancient Egypt, there is nothing to equal this in any other part of the world. The movement and the placing of such monoliths point to a dense population, to an organised government, and consequently to a large area under cultivation, with arrangements for the conveyance of supplies from various directions. There must have been an organisation combining skill and intelligence with power and administrative ability.