Excerpt from South America, Past and Present

The whole Tiahuanaco race may have disappeared or been obliged to abandon its native haunts through some change in the living conditions on the lofty Bolivian plateau, which having risen higher through the action of some seismic disturbance became uninhabitable for man and his progeny. For were it not for the vast mineral wealth first found there by the Spaniards - principally silver, which gave more than a thousand million pesos, from the Potosi and other nearby regions - and the rich deposits of lead, copper, tin, etc., which are now being developed, the Puna, that bleak and frozen region, would now be completely deserted. This meseta (plateau) has not always remained at its present elevation, which fact is made evident by the soil of the pampas, composed mostly of sediment such as is deposited under water and not only found on low, level ground but at more than one thousand meters above the sea on the sides of the Cordillera Real of Bolivia, which lpes as far as the immense desert-like plain called El Chaco.

On the same soil of the pampas, which covers the Argen tine plain, and which is to be found at more than one thou sand metres elevation, numerous Species of fossils have been discovered corresponding to the tiger, the predecessor of the elephant, ape, megatheriums, etc. No better proof than this need be asked to substantiate the fact that the Bolivian plateau has risen considerably higher than its original eleva tion above sea level.

These changes have occurred quite frequently in South American regions as well as in other parts of the world, as is the case in the desert of Sahara in the African continent, where at one time abundant streams drained its vast domains and luxuriant vegetation and domestic animals of all kinds were to be found; these included the ox, a likeness of which has been found hewn in the rocks, no doubt carved there by the unknown settler of that unrecorded epoch.

The upheaval of the Alps mountains to beyond a certain height intercepted the northerly rain-laden winds, thereby making a barren, arid desert where once vegetation abounded and beautiful rivers flowed.

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