Note 413 — Chapter LXXXIII

Also called the lake of Chinchaycocha. Near its southern shore the famous cavalry action was fought in 1823 between the Spaniards and Patriots, known as the battle of Junin, in which the gallant old general Miller distinguished himself. The lake is thirty-six miles long in a north-west and south-east direction, with an average breadth of about six miles, and 12,940 feet above the level of the sea. The plain or basin in which it lies, is forty-five miles long and from six to twelve broad, with a gravelly soil producing a short grass. A great number of large and beautiful water-fowl, including the scarlet flamingo and several varieties of snipe, frequent the banks of the lake, which are overgrown by reeds. As the lake loses by various outlets much more water than it receives from its tributary sources, it is evident that it must be fed by subterraneous springs. The Indians entertain a superstitious belief that this lake is haunted by huge fish-like animals, who at certain hours of the night leave their watery abode to prowl about the adjacent pasture lands, where they commit great havoc among the cattle. Von Tschudi, Herndon.