TRUJILLO, the capital and prefectural seat of the Depart ment of La Libertad, in Peru, lies in lat. 8° 7' S. and long. 79° 9' W., some 30o miles up the coast and north of Lima, the capital. It is the second city in Peru in point of age, having been founded by Pizarro and his followers in the year 1537; and the fourth city in point of population, having approximately 40,00o inhabitants, exceeded by Lima, Callao City and Arequipa. It is 8 m. by rail from Salaverry, its port on the Pacific ocean, and 4 m. from the coast at its nearest point.
Trujillo serves the important mining region of Quiruvilca (copper) and Milluachaqui (gold and silver) which is now being exploited by the Northern Peru Mining and Smelting Company, a subsidiary of the American Smelting and Refining Company of New York, and growing quantities of bar-copper, gold and silver ores, concentrates and precipitates are being shipped. It also serves two agricultural districts, that of the Valley of the River Moche and of the Valley of the Chicama, the last named being probably the most important sugar-cane growing district of Peru. Much of the traffic that formerly passed through Trujillo from the Chicama valley is now being diverted to the port of Malabrigo or, as it is now called, Puerto Chicama.
Though lying in the tropics, geographically, the climate is dis tinctly temperate due to the Humbolt current that sweeps up the west coast of South America from the Antarctic ocean to Punta Parifia, Peru, where it flows out to sea, the average temperature of this current being about 60° F. An extended observation of meteorological conditions at Trujillo shows a maximum tern perature of 85° F and a minimum of 55°, the mean variation between diurnal and nocturnal extremes being Io degrees. The
region is practically rainless and agriculture is carried on by irrigation from rains high up in the Andes which closely hug the coastline. Light rains occur at cycles of seven years and of greater importance at cycles of 31 years. One such period oc curred in March 1925, when, between March 7 and the end of that month 15.5 in. of rain fell, ten times more than the total rainfall for the seven year period 1918-24 inclusive. These rains caused great damage to Trujillo and neighbouring towns and many houses were demolished and many people left homeless in a country where no provision for protection against rain exists.
Trujillo is served by a narrow-gauge railway line that connects it with its port—Salaverry—with a branch to Menocucho in the Moche valley, and a line to Ascope in the Chicama valley. The city is the centre of a very rich and exceedingly interesting region from an anthropological and archaeological point of view; the ruined and deserted pre-Inca city, Chan Chan, the capital of a civilization known variously as the Chimu, Mochica or Yunga, lies close by, and the Chicama valley, the lower Moche valley and the Valley of the River Viru are rich in remains of civiliza tions believed even to antedate that of the Yungas. Trujillo is approximately 2 2 hr. by steamer from Callao, the port for Lima.
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