Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/371

Rh topographically. The department of Chichas lies to the N. N. E. of Potosi, in the intendency of which it is comprehended, and by which it intersects the royal road of Buenos Ayres. Its length, from north to south, is forty-eight leagues, from the small river of Quiaca, a branch of the Tucuman, to Quirve, on the confines of Porco. Its breadth, from east to west, is a hundred leagues, from Esmoraca, in the department of Lipes, on the western side, to Chuquiaca, the station of the mission of las Salinas, belonging to the missionaries of Tarija, on the banks of the river San Juan, which separates it from that province.

Its principal rivers are the Toropalca and the Tarija, which, having received the Pilcomayo and the Bermejo, on the confines that divide the two provinces, take a northern direction, and enter the territory occupied by the Chirihuanos, thence proceeding to incorporate themselves with the river of la Plata. This department contains nine parochial distr16ls, five of which are situated in la Puna, and the remaining four in the vallies of Tarija. The former properly constitute its division; but the latter are most abundant in wood and corn.

The first parochial district of la Puna is Tolina, in a country intersedted by small streams, which bears the same name. It is distant from Potosi seventy leagues; affords a small produce of maize and wheat, and contains several gold mines, which are, however, gone to decays through the ignorance of the mode of separating the metal from the ore, and for want of the funds requisite to work them. Its inhabitants, consisting of Indians and mestizos, derive the greater part of their subsistence from the transport of merchandizes.

Tupiza, in a territory of the same description, is distant from