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Carbelide Nelicanya Sectory 19
Page 03
I left Tarma on January 29th, following a well-cultivated valley, fairly thickly inhabited. We were travelling over a good mule-track, swarming with Indians, donkeys, mules, and horses. The mud houses and land on either side were enclosed by hedges of cacti, or by walls. We were between barren mountains of a brownish colour, against which the quaint, brightly-coloured costumes of the many people on the road were thrown out in vivid contrast. Most of the houses were constructed of large mud bricks, sun-dried. The crops seemed to consist chiefly of Indian corn. As we went farther, among dark brown rocks and limestone, we came to grottoes and rock habitations. At some remote period there must have been a great upheaval in that country--at least, judging by the sedimentary foliated rock, the strata of which were from one to three feet thick, and which had originally been deposited horizontally by water. These accumulations or sediments now stood up at an angle of 45 deg.. We were now in a region where llamas were plentiful--most delightful animals, with their pointed ears pricked up, their luxuriant coats, and stumpy curled tails.
BAKHUYZEN, JUFFROUW GERARDINA JACOBA VAN DE SANDE. Silver medal at The Hague, 1857; honorary medal at Amsterdam, 1861; another at The Hague, 1863; and a medal of distinction at Amsterdam Colonial Exhibition, 1885. Daughter of the well-known animal painter. From childhood she painted flowers, and for a time this made no especial impression on her family or friends, as it was not an uncommon occupation for girls. At length her father saw that this daughter, Gerardina--for he had numerous daughters, and they all desired to be artists--had talent, and when, in 1850, the Minerva Academy at Groningen gave out "Roses and Dahlias" as a subject, and offered a prize of a little more than ten dollars for the best example, he encouraged Gerardina to enter the contest. She received the contemptible reward, and found, to her astonishment, that the Minerva Academy considered the picture as belonging to them.
My men were paddling away with great vigour and were making rapid progress, the river flowing almost all the time northward, with deviations of a few degrees toward the east, in stretches from 2,000 to 6,000 m. in length. We crossed an immense basin 1,500 m. broad with most gorgeous sand beaches. Their formation in small dunes, occasionally with an edge like the teeth of a double comb, was most interesting. Once or twice we came to musical sands such as we had found before. Everywhere on those beaches I noticed the wonderful miniature sand plants, of which I made a complete collection.
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