As Canta is considered a sort of hospital for the ailing people from Lima, it may be proper to remark, that in a medical point of view, it is invested with a great deal of interest, and that it is built on a hill whose base skirts the village of Obrajillo; while, from the plaza of the lower village to the higher town, the ascent is no more than about thirty minutes’ walk. Canta, however, is considered to enjoy a far purer air than Obrajillo; and, as it is only twenty-five leagues from the capital, the hectic, phthisical, and slowly convalescent Limenians, are wont to prefer this to remoter districts. By the people of Obrajillo and Canta, alfalfa, or lucern, is everywhere cultivated near the river and in their little enclosures, and the surrounding hills are covered with pasture: the lower declivities and gentle slopes produce good crops of wheat, beans, potatoes, maize, &c. Here the culen is one of the most common shrubs, and the natives make a tea of its leaves which is deemed an excellent stomachic. During the wet season flowers and flowering shrubs are spread abroad with liberal profusion; but the trees are too few to supply the wants of the inhabitants, whose houses are therefore constructed at great trouble; being obliged to convey timber from distant places and deep ravines. The stone or adobe walls and thatched roofs of the small villages or pueblos of the Sierra characterize, with only one exception, the buildings of Obrajillo. The dwelling-houses are employed for stowing potatoes, maize, and whatever eatables the residents may be blessed with; and, when the family retire to rest, most of them lie down on sheep-skins wherever they can find room in their disorderly apartments. We need hardly observe that every traveller on these roads must carry with him his own blanket or ponchos to repose on at night.