Following the eastern slopes of the Andes to the south-east, the next village to Ayapata, at the head of another deep ravine, is Ccoasa, and next follow Usicayus, Phara, and Limbani. Phara is in a ravine on the eastern slope of the Andes, about thirty-five miles from Crucero. Here many gold-mines were worked by the Señores Mulattos, and at no great distance is the famous gold-mine of Aporuma, in the ravine of Pacchani. Phara is on the road to the gold-diggings, which were discovered by the brothers Poblete, and which attracted so many luckless adventurers between 1849 and 1854. They are at a distance of fifteen leagues to the northward. The path lies along a long ridge, gradually descending for six leagues to a little hamlet called La Mina. Thence to the banks of the river Ynambari, here called Huari-huari, is a distance of three leagues, down a very dangerous road, covered with huge blocks of schist, and skirting along fearful precipices. For this distance the road is passable for mules. The river is seventy yards broad, and is crossed by an _oroya_, or bridge of ropes, traversed by a sort of net or cage, into which the passenger gets, and is hauled over to the other side, at a giddy height above the boiling flood. On the other side, at the junction of the Huari-huari and the golden river of Challuma,[305] there is a place which has been named Versailles by some French adventurers, of whom the most daring and energetic is a M. La Harpe. The road, so far, was opened by a party of soldiers of the batallion Yungay. From Versailles to the _lavaderos_ or gold-washings is a distance of six leagues up a narrow forest-covered ravine; and, in this distance, it is necessary to wade across the river Challuma no less than fifty-three times--the water coming up to the waist, the feet constantly slipping over loose rounded stones, the only support a long staff, and where one false step would be inevitable destruction. At the end of this perilous journey there is a place called Alta-garcia, where the _administradores_ of the company of first discoverers were established in 1850. Thence to Quimza-mayu (three rivers) is half a league, and here the _lavaderos_ commence. In this part of its course the river is called Taccuma. Many of the gold-seekers, such as the Señores Carpio, La Harpe, Valdez, Tovar, Cardenas, and Costas, have been men who were formerly engaged in the chinchona-bark trade, and who know the country thoroughly. The tributaries of the Challuma, called Quimza-mayu, rise in hills completely isolated from the Andes, and their sands are full of gold, both in dust and nuggets. Immediately above the _lavaderos_ rises a hill called Capacurco, and by the French adventurers Montebello, formed of quartz and other primitive rocks, with rich veins of gold. Here Don Manuel Costas of Puno erected a house, and brought out machinery for crushing the quartz, but the undertaking failed through the badness of the machinery, and the