“The district of Caroica may be considered as fitly representing the remainder of Yungas, and Yungas as representing the principal Coca districts of this republic. The conditions of soil and climate may be briefly stated. Proceeding eastward from La Paz, itself somewhat more than ten thousand feet[24] above the sea, for a distance of four or five leagues, we reach the summit of the pass over the easternmost cordillera of the Andes, this cordillera having an average elevation in this immediate district of perhaps sixteen thousand feet. This ridge, always more or less snow-covered, cuts off a large portion of the westward-bound clouds, which are either precipitated in the form of rain before reaching the summit, or arriving there, are deposited in the form of snow, and then returned by means of rivulets to the valleys, chiefly of the eastern slope. It should be noted that in Northern Peru and Ecuador this cordillera is higher than here, so that the eastern slope in those regions is more profusely and regularly watered than here. From this pass, had we a direct road, we could travel in half a day, so steep is the descent, to the banks of the Caroica River, having an altitude of only two thousand four hundred feet. When we have descended to six thousand four hundred feet we should meet with our first Coca plantations, and after passing the two thousand foot level we should have left them principally or entirely behind. Within this four or five thousand feet, then, lie the cocales of Bolivia. No description can convey a perfect idea of the steepness of this luxuriant slope. Travel, entirely by riding-animals, is extremely difficult. There are only occasional places where we can readily leave the road, and here plantations are established. The hedge of coffee-plants at the roadside proves on examination to be the uppermost row of a plantation; and as we peer down among the shrubs we marvel that anyone can preserve his footing while cultivating or collecting the coffee. The scenery is, of course, magnificent, and of a different type, I should think, from that of any other part of the world. The mountains are too young to have lost to a great extent their ragged outline, yet softness is imparted by the richness of the vegetation. We stand among the coca plants and distinctly see another cocal nearly four thousand feet below us. [Footnote 24: “I have given altitudes and measurements approximately in English feet. By the Spanish measurements the altitudes are much greater.”] “The cultivated plants of the coca district are coffee, rice, cacao, sugar cane, tobacco, maize, cotton (the arborescent species), sweet potatoes, yuccas, and the ordinary garden vegetables. The principal fruits are oranges, bananas, cocoanuts, lemons (sweet and sour), citrons, grapes, chirimoyas, alligator pears, tumbas, pomegranates, grenadillas, figs, papayas, lukmas, melons, and pineapples, the last just introduced.