largely from the native cactus (see Fig. 98), or cardén, with some imported parts from the distant woodland that clothes the eastern mountain slopes above Rosario de Lerma (Fig. 95).
The life of Poma in one aspect or another is repeated in many of the border valleys. Among these is Luracatao, a tributary valley of the Calchaqui. It sends some 300 head of cattle a month to Chile. ‘They go in troops of 60 head, traveling about nine to twelve miles a day and going to markets even as far north as [quique. ‘The large-boned, large-hoofed beasts, shod for the journey, are of a type well fitted for such travel; but even they, especially during the winter, arrive in poor condition. It is estimated that they lose one hundred pounds on the road.[1]
The Escoipe valley has products and a cattle business similar to the Calchaqui. At least a score of high mountain valleys are under development on the mountain border as way stations for cattle or as pastures for flocks and herds whose products are sent to Salta and eventually to Buenos Aires for overseas markets.
The Live-Stock Trade With Bolivia
One might suppose that so isolated a community as Poma would have little value, and yet so important is the combina- tion of water and good soil that every favorable spot between the puna and the plains has been discovered and developed. The chief business of Poma, as we have seen, is the grazing of live stock during the winter when the flocks and herds must be driven down from the surrounding high mountains to the more sheltered valley floor. The settlement is also important as a station in the live-stock trade with southern Bolivia. The difficulties of the way oblige the dealers to drive their cattle slowly and rest them frequently in favorable spots. Every year a stream of mules, asses, Hamas, sheep, and cattle go north from the Poma valley over high passes to Bolivia where they are sold to the mines or to the railroads where construction is in progress, or are held for the great annual fair at Huari, Bolivia. At this celebrated fair there gather every
- ↑ E. A. Holmberg: Viaje por la Governacién de Los Andes, Buenos Aires, 1900.
