steep slopes. On several miles of valley side I counted six or seven such farms.
Disposition and Life of Valley Population
The huts of the arrenderos are scattered throughout the lower valley slopes. The last of them are generally located no higher than 10,800 to 10,900 feet. The highest hut I saw was at an elevation of 12,100 feet in the ravine of Penas Blancas.
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Fig. 68—The main street in Poma, Calchaquí valley.
It was a small stone hut thatched with grass and had a corral connected directly with it (Fig. 112). “The thatch is made of car- rizo, clump grass somewhat like pampa grass; the long stems give it stability, and it is weighted down with stones. This hut was occupied in the months of January and February when the rains come[1] and the warmer weather. In June, at the time of our visit, it was unoccupied. At the mouths of many of the tributary valleys corrals are built, and sometimes stone fences are laid across constricted portions of the valleys from steep cliffs on one side to steep cliffs on the other to prevent the down- valley movement of the flocks. The shepherds or persons in their employ are in all cases the arrenderos of the valley
- ↑ Kiihn (Zeitschr, Gesell. fiir Erdkunde su Berlin, 1911, p. 149) gives the precipitation of the Calchaquí valley as 200-300 mim, for January, February, and March.
