The Present State of Peru/1c

by Joseph Skinner

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF PERU.

The first object which presents itself to the contemplation of the philosopher, in the history of the monuments of ancient Peru, is the delineation of the various dispositions and organization of its vast territory. In tracing with his pen, amid the spoils and ravages of time and of war, the degree of cultivation this famous nation had attained, when, without the help either of the Egyptians, the Phœnicians or the Greeks, it established wise laws, and made, in certain points of view, great advances in the arts and sciences, he finds it indispensably necessary to examine the soil on which the ruins that are to guide and direct him in his researches are placed. The grandeur of the works erected by the hand of man, is not to be estimated solely by the sad remnants to which they are reduced: it is essential that the proportions of the land which served them as a support, should also enter into the calculation. The canal which waters the most fertile valley, does not display the same magnificence in itself, nor manifest an equal effort and skill on the part of the artificer, as that which, running between formidable precipices, rises to the summit of the mountain, and pierces the deep cleft, which in magnitude equals its arm, or falls into the valley from between the brink and the declivity of lofty hills. On the other hand, as the qualities and circumstances of regions influence the genius and character of those by whom they are peopled, without the physical knowledge of Peru, it would be impossible to trace out the eminent advantages of its former or present inhabitants.

In the general idea of Peru which we have given, we confined ourselves chiefly to the plans that had been suggested, in dividing, peopling, and cultivating its territory, by the different views and interests of its conquerors. We presented to our readers a prefatory introduction, a leisure composition, in which, noticing rapidly, and in substance, whatever this country owes to man, we prepared them for the elucidation of each of the parts contained in that valuable sketch of our political geography. We now follow a different course. In naming Peru, we banish from our view its inhabitants and its cities, and annihilate even the superb towers of opulent Lima. The plains which our forefathers laboured and fertilized, disappear; and the delightful environs of Rimac present no other ornament than a multitude of shrubs and green meadows, which, agitated by the gentle breeze, rival the undulations and murmurs of the Pacific Ocean, as it washes its banks.

Having penetrated into the ages of remote antiquity, in search of the fragments of the edifices of the Yncas, to complete the history of their monuments, we now fix our attention on those times when the human footstep had as yet left no print on the sands of this favoured region; when its fertile plains were still uncultivated. Nature alone appears, wrapt up in a mysterious silence. Her powerful hand is about to give the last perfection to the globe, and to support its equilibrium, by forming two distinct worlds in one single continent. It would appear, that after she had exercised herself on the burning sands of Africa, on the leafy and fragrant groves of Asia, and on the temperate and colder climes of Europe, she aimed at assembling together in Peru all the productions she had denied to the other three quarters, to repose there majestically, surrounded by each of them. Such and so great are the riches this admirable kingdom contains! In describing its physical geography, it will not be inexpedient to adopt certain divisions. We shall, in the first place, treat of the general design of the two worlds which compose the two principal parts of Peru; of those two worlds which form the august temple of our mother and liberal benefactress. Their limits, their directions, their correspondences; their respective advantages over the rest of the terraqueous globe; and their preponderance and influx in the equilibrium of that globe, are objects which, presenting themselves on a large scale, will lead and accustom us, without fatigue, to the detailed examination of whatever each of them in particular contains. O that any one could possess the divine and energetic pencil of Nature, to give to his portraits the colouring and delicacy with which she has beautified the original!

Peru, the limits of which are traced out by the great phenomena that divide the provinces of its universal empire, forms, without doubt, the whole of the southern part of the Burning Zone, which runs north and south from the Equator to the Tropic of Capricorn, and west and east from the borders of the Pacific Sea to the forests and deserts of the country of the Amazons, by which the eastern branch of the Cordillera of the Andes is terminated. Thus its greatest extension, which is to be measured in degrees of latitude, embraces a space of twenty-three degrees and a half, between Cape Palma on the confines of Pasto, and Morro-Moreno on those of the kingdom of Chile. Chosen to be the throne of light in the southern hemisphere, it spreads precisely over the whole of the space which the sun declines from the centre of the sphere, to animate it by its benign influence. Its breadth, which we shall place between two hundred and ninety-seven and three hundred and ten degrees of longitude, the first meridian being taken at the Peak of Teneriffe, varies according as the coasts are at a greater or smaller distance from the Cordillera, or chain of mountains. From the Line to the eighth degree, there is a separation of about one hundred and twenty leagues; but hence, insensibly as it were, gaining ground, its greatest distance, at the eighteenth degree, is reduced to seventy leagues only. By choosing a middle term between these two extremes, and allowing twenty leagues to the degree, the result gives to Peru a plane superficies of 44,650 square leagues^[1].

The whole of this vast superficies serves as a basis to the great Cordillera of the Andes, which, separating majestically beneath the Equator, and forming two branches, the eastern and the western, parallel to each other, and, for the greater part, to the southern coasts, proceeds on to the Tropic of Capricorn. In its way, the eastern branch takes a bend towards the south-east, and terminates in the plains. The western branch penetrates into the kingdom of Chile^[2]. The highest points of each of them are covered by a snow as ancient as the world; and their volcanoes, which vomit forth a perpetual fire in the region of frost and cold, present a terrific spectacle to the contemplative philosopher.

If the worth of countries were to be estimated by the greater or less extension they afford to population and to agriculture, the Royal Cordillera would diminish the value of Peru, since its eminences and declivities, far from augmenting the proportion of cultivable land which would be found at the bases of this chain of mountains, diminish them extremely^[3]; but, in return, it affords other advantages, which are not only able to keep up the balance, but also to give a preponderance to the side of the territory. For the architecture of this Cordillera appears to be altogether distinct from that which Nature displays in the organization of the rest of the globe; or, rather, it is its design and completion. Divided into two parts, it composes as many worlds, the one high, the other low, in which, as has already been said, is united whatever distinguishes Africa from Asia, and both of them conjointly from Europe.

The high world occupies the ground which separates the two above-mentioned chains of mountains, the summits of which are distant from each other, ten, twenty, and, in some instances, fifty leagues. It indeed happens that in some places they meet and unite, by the interposition of a third Cordillera, which runs east and west. Such is that of Asuay and Moxanda, in the kingdom of Quito^[4]. Notwithstanding its soil, covered with verdure and foliage, is interrupted by innumerable heaths and deep clefts, still it is very aptly described by a philosopher who had occasion to examine this Cordillera. In ascending, says he, the rude and terrific mountains which look towards the South Sea, it cannot possibly occur to the human mind, that on thetr shoulders others of equal magnitude should rise, and that all of them should serve to shelter, in their common bosom, that happy country where Nature, in her most bountiful mood, or rather, in her prodigality, has, painted the image of terrestrialparadise^[5].

The low world is situated, with the interposition of the chain of mountains, between the western branch and the ocean, which are distant from each other from ten to twenty leagues. It consists of a multitude of sloping plains, which, descending from this branch, from the Line to Tumbes, terminate in immense forests, and hence advance towards the borders of the ocean, as if with a design to limit its empire. The above plains are separated from each other by vallies, which, originating at the coast of the ocean, with a breadth of from three to eight leagues, take an eastern direction, being bounded on the north and on the south by a series of hills, which, augmenting in proportion as they enter Sierra, divide the western chain, occasionally cross the subsequent space, intersect the eastern chain, and terminate in the plains of the country of the Amazons, preserving a great resemblance to their origin^[6].

By this description it would appear, that the true direction of the Peruvian Alps is by no means north and south, as has been asserted, and that those who, upon this ground, have fancied they could overturn, by a single effort, the systems of Copernicus and Newton, have not paid a sufficient attention to this subject. Formed of an infinite series of high mountains, which run west and east, or in a contrary direction, between the South Sea and the country of the Amazons, and rising to a prodigious height in the midst of their career, they unite, and appear to the view to take a third course^[7]. The delightful world we are about to sketch, would be obscured by the imperfect descriptions of our pen, if it had not been illustrated by the divinest poet of the age, to whose sublime genius the task was reserved.

Felices nimium populi, queis prodiga tellus
Fundit opes ad vota suas, queis contigit Æstas<
Æmula veris, Hyems sine fiigore, nubibus aer
Usque carens, nulloque solum fcecundius imbre^[8].

Certain philosophers have undertaken to erect to Nature a temple worthy of her immensity—a temple in which, her productions being deposited, the skeletons of all organized beings should be collected in the centre; and that over this tomb of corpses death should hover, to give life and vigour to art. Peru is her august temple, in which, without the necessity of the feeble decorations of the chisel and the pencil, without the necessity of viewing her sensible creatures humbled in the dismal array of the sepulchre, she displays herself living, and in all her splendor. The high world is the principal nave; its flooring, superior in elevation to Olympus, Pindus, Imaus, or the Pyrenean mountains, supports a magnificent façade looking towards the north, and crowned by the celestial Equator. The edifice which terminates beneath the tropic of Capricorn, is crowned at the meridian by another arch of equal elegance. Corazon, Iligniza, Chimborazo, Collanes, Vilcanota, Illimani, Condoroma, and Tacora, are the columns by which it is supported. Antisana, Cotopaxi, Tunguragua, Pichincha, Ambato, Quinistakac, and Cheke-Putina, are so many inextinguishable lamps, which, covered by a thick vapour, perpetuate unceasingly the worship of the Deity.

The collateral divisions, regulated, not according to the wretched ideas of man, but by the infinitely wise plans of the Creator, point out the direction of the vallies of which they are composed, and lead, by superb entrances, to the east and west, to the spacious passages formed, on the one hand, by thefertile plains of the Amazons, and on the other by the coasts and the ocean. The produ6tions of the three kingdoms are distributed in each of them. The areas and columns of the centre are enriched by minerals, among which the diamond, enchased in the finest gold, sparkles with effulgence. In the circumference meteors prevail; and while in one direction, the lightning's vivid flash precedes the loud explosion and the darted thunderbolt, in another the blushing dawn of Aurora shines amid the calmly-floating vapours. The vallies are replete with the treasures of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. On the eastern side, the fragrant groves are peopled by ferocious beasts, serpents, insects, and the tribe of amphibii. To the westward, the timid quadrupeds feed in security beneath the shade of the cedar and the plaintain, amid aromatic shrubs and odour-distilling flowers. In the bays, aquatic monsters skim the surface of the watery deep.

The ruins which surround these delightful spots, point out the mines of electric fire, the subterraneous directions they have taken, and the points at which they suffer the greatest resistance in their explosions. On contemplating the destruction they have occasioned, the spectator might be disposed to say, that Nature, disgusted with the temple she had herself erected with so much care, had established it on immense masses of the igneous element, to the end that it should be devoured. He might be led to observe that the French naturalist, Buffon, adverted to Peru, when he affirmed that "the terraqueous globe is a confused chaos, which presents no other image than that of a heap of ruins, and of a world fallen into decay." But let us not insult Nature: she is great, wise, and beautiful, in the midst even of her demolitions. Without them, her works would be left imperfect, and our speculations would be vain and steril. Let us suppose for a moment that we could be surrounded by the fragments of Memphis, of Athens, and of ancient Rome, and that we could bring them within our reach. What an extacy would then take possession of our spirit and intellectual faculties! Our insatiable thoughts would meditate and reflect on the remains of the pyramids, and on the vestiges of the areopagus and triumphal arcs. With how much pleasure should we record the power of time, and the personages by whom they were erected! Their antiquity would inspire us with a profound respect. Why, therefore, are we not penetrated by the same sentiments, on viewing the works of Nature? The rocks which are still standing are more ancient than Memphis; and those which lie prostrate, denote a power infinitely superior to that of the Phoroahs and Mariuses, and a skill which has an equal advantage over the areopagus.

The ruins of the planet we inhabit ought to produce in our heart the same complacency with its reparations; seeing that the divine economy, which does nothing in vain, by levelling a hill in such a particular direction, affords a passage to the waters which fertilize the plains, and operates a salutary change in the climate. By shaking the most solid foundations of the universe, it intimates to us its power, and diversifies the superficies of the earth, already wearied with affording us nourishment. If to these sentiments, which elevate us to the bosom of Omnipotence, we add others which manifest, to those who study and adore her, the kind solicitude of Nature, we may be led to consider that the ruins which surround her temple are so many mausolea erected to merit. How do we know but that yonder rock, shaded by an old and venerable oak, covers the ashes of the immortal prelate Fehciano De La Vega? Are we certain that those of Peralta do not repose beneath this one, through the sides of which issues a rapid torrent, that, in its impetuous course, would sweep them away, if it should encounter them? Thus also those others, at whose feet a thousand shrubs of variegated hues spring up, amid the beautiful jets of water that play around them, may hereafter become the monuments of the individuals who labour for the glory of Peru! Let us hence be persuaded that Nature needs not the help of man, to preserve the posthumous fame of her philosophers. Bearing therefore in our recollection, that the tombs of Cæsar and Alexander no longer exist, and that those which modern nations have raised to their heroes, must inevitably decay and perish, let us engrave on these solid rocks, sacred to the memory of our sages, and which time has respected: unius cetatls sunt, quae fortitur fiunt: quæ vera pro utilitate reipublicæ scribuntur æterna sunt. Lastly, instead of being terrified at their aspect, let us aspire to live amid the ruins of Peru.

Hitherto we have sketched the temple which Nature has erected to herself on two worlds, so far as it has been within our grasp and our view. The capitals of her proud columns rising into the region of the clouds, are not to be traced by our pencil. It may be said that glory has fixed on them her throne, securing it on crystal pedestals, which, refracting the light in every direction, represent in the ether the fountains and gardens of Elysium, seen through the prism. Commanding thence the whole of the universe, she serenely views beneath her feet the generation and shock of the tempests which affright living mortals, and discovers the inexhaustible sources whence spring the abundant rivers that empty themselves into the ocean^[9], to enable the industrious European to supply, with the productions of every part of the globe, the country which invigorates his commerce, cherishes his arts and sciences, renders his troops and fleets respected, and gives him a preponderance in the balance of power.

The Icarus of the age, M. Charles, quitted the banks of the Seine, and ascended into the region of the air, amid the applauses of an immense concourse of spectators. When he could no longer hear the acclamations of the admiring populace; when Paris had already disappeared from his view; when the Alps and Pyrenean mountains were, in a manner, annihilated; and when the whole of Europe merely appeared to him like a large spot by which the horizon was obscured; our aerial navigator was persuaded that he had quitted the vortex of the earth, and was on the point of ascending into that of the moon! Presumptuous and mistaken mortal, in that elevated region thou didst not exceed the level of the surface of the more elevated parts of Peru^[10]! At the height at which it appeared to thee impossible that human beings should respire, those who inhabit that delightful angle have gardens and plains which rival those of Versailles^[11]. No: thou didst not soar to the highest pitch to which man, oppressed as he is by the heavy load of his body, is capable of ascending. Thou art not yet deserving of the laurels of Nature, constantly just in her awards. She reserves them for those who ascend the elevated tops of the Andes mountains: and surveys with complacency the weak mortal seated on the lofty summit on which the eagle dares not alight, nor even venture a regard. It is there that she shines in her most pompous array, crowning the temples of the hero, not with the opaque metals with which we strive to imitate the splendor of glory^[12], but with the translucent and beautiful colours of the iris^[13]

If these brilliant traits point out the predilection of Nature for Peru, the influence that territory possesses in the equilibrium of the terraqueous globe, is not less demonstrated. According to astronomical observations, and physical demonstrations, the earth does not repose in the centre of the universe, but turns on its axis from the west to the east, and, by a second revolution, runs through all the signs of the Zodiac. By the means of the first of these movements we are stationed in the twilight of the morning; next, beneath the glare of mid-day; next, within the confines of night; and, lastly, We are buried in its shades. This alternation enables us to see daily the magnificent spectacle of the creation of the earth; since the gently sloping hills, the plains, and the seas, which darkness seemed to have annihilated, rise, in a manner, out of the chaotic void, at the birth of Aurora. By the second movement, we are transported from one region to another; and when we imagine that we do not quit the first points, relatively to the firmament occupied by Peru at the date of its primitive existence, we live in reality a part of the year in the north, and the other in the south.

Such mutations, which truly appal those who contemplate them, being dependent on the motion of the earth, cannot be produced without an exact equilibrium, and unless the northern hemisphere be counterbalanced by the southern. The whole being necessarily subject to the laws by which its parts are governed, the instant the northern pole should preponderate over the southern, a dreadful disorder would seize on the globe; the waters would flow precipitately, to collect in Greenland, Nova Zembla, Russia, and Norway; and, inundating the whole of those countries, as well as that of the Eskimaus, the multitude of lakes, morasses, and accumulations of snow, which would result, would justify more than ever the application of the epithet of Ovid: omnia pontus erat. With what surprize we should see the promontories of snow, collected around Cape Horn, pass rapidly along the coasts of the Burning Zone!

The equilibrium established and preserved by that Sovereign Being who created things by number, weight, and measure, of itself maintains its correspondence and harmony. This assertion, deduced both from physics and astronomy, appears to be free from any doubt: it ought therefore to regulate our discourses, and to give a tone to our speculations. On a survey, however, of the history of human discoveries, the facts which ought to correspond with the principles agreed on are not to be met with in the southern hemisphere. Being principally occupied by the ocean, the third part of the territories which lie in the northern hemisphere cannot be found; and as the weight of the earth, the average being taken between the different gravities of the parts of which it is composed, is to that of water, as two to one, it would seem that a sufficient proportion of matter is not to be found in that part of the globe, to counterbalance the one which is opposite.

Philosophers feeling themselves oppressed by the weight of difficulty, have imagined new lands beneath the antarctic polar circle, and have endeavoured to support their hypotheses by the discoveries of Hawkins, Brovers, De La Roche, Sec. With what enthusiasm are they not described by Maupertuis! and what advantages does he not prognosticate to the hero of the north, provided he should undertake to achieve the conquest of them! This philosopher may be aptly compared to Anaxarchus the Abderite, whose ravings excited the ambition, and drew forth the tears of Alexander^[14]. The author of the discourse prefixed to the voyage of M. Bougainville to the Malvine Isles, estimates the superficies of the rare continent in question at ten millions of square miles—an extent greater by a million of square miles than that of all the countries hitherto known^[15]. When the immortal Cook approached to ascertain its existence, it vanished like a phantom. The immense and fertile plains of New Zealand will be found to be nothing more than a few small and inclement isles.

In recording the real benefits by which we are surrounded, we shall not have recourse to vague or chimerical ideas. The enormous masses that gravitate on Peru, are those which regulate the equilibrium of the globe. More lofty in comparison to the northern mountains, than is the superb tower to the lowly hut, and constructed of metallic substances from the basis to the summit^[16], why should they not be able to counter-balance the excess of the territories opposite to those we inhabit? If Chimborazo alone has been capable of measuring its strength with the whole earth, and of giving to the pendulum a divergence of seven seconds and a half from the line, where all the efficacy of the globe directs it to the centre, with how much greater reason ought an entire world of analogous mountains, united to Chimborazo, to equiliberate, not the absolute weight of the globe, nor the northern territories, but, respectively, the sum of the excess of the latter over the southern?

Finally, philosophy requires the equilibrium of the terraqueous globe; navigation denies the existence of new continents beyond Cape Horn; and the ocean cannot compensate the defeat. The cordillera of Peru is the largest and most elevated on the surface of the earth; and the masses of which it is composed, the most solid and ponderous. It is therefore Peru that adjusts and maintains the equilibrium of the globe. Peru, in which the prodigal hand of Nature has stored up all the productions she has dispersed in the vast territories which lie on the other side of the Equator; Peru, in which, uniting two different worlds, she has raised to herself a temple worthy of her immensity, is what, in the rotations of the terrestrial planet, prevents the ruin of many an opulent kingdom, of many a warlike nation, and of Europe itself, the theatre of the grandeur and wisdom of man.

The following queries relative to the phenomena of the climate of certain districts in Peru, were proposed by an intelligent friend of the Editor to a learned Peruvian residing in the British Capital. The replies, which are subjoined, may tend to illustrate several physical points relative to a country which offers distinct characteristics from the rest of the globe, and which has recently excited a more than common curiosity in, the philosophical world.

1. Does it ever rain in those parts of Peru which are commonly exempt from that phenomenon?

2. Are those districts uniformly bounded on the east by the mountains?

3. What is the general height of those mountains?

4. Does a stratum of clouds, supposed to proceed from the Atlantic Ocean, regularly settle at a particular height on the eastern side of those mountains?

5. Is that stratum of clouds higher than the vacancies which exist between the several mountains? and, if so, do the clouds ever pass between those vacancies, so as to occasion partial showers of rain?

6. Does the wind never blow from off the Pacific Ocean, upon those districts which are exempt from rain?

7., If it be so, does it not bring with it clouds from off the Pacific Ocean? and, if so, what becomes of those clouds?

8. It is stated, that in the night dews fall which support vegetation in those districts. Have the sources of these dews been ascertained? Are they the result of evaporation from the soil only, during the heat of the day; or are they not, on the other hand, partly created by the evaporation from the adjacent seas?

9. If created by evaporation from the soil, what is the original source of the moisture of the soil?

10. Are there springs in those districts? are they numerous and regular? and what is their source?

11. Are there rivulets? and what is their source?

12. What is the breadth, and what the length, of the countries thus exempt from the phenomenon of rain?

13. What are the phenomena resulting from its absence?

14. Do those districts enjoy a perpetually unclouded atmosphere? Are there rainbows? Are there any meteors, or falling stars, or thunder and lightning? And, if these phenomena do exist, are they vertical, or are they not in the vicinity of the mountains?

15. If the question 13 be not, in its entire sense, applicable to the circumstances, it may further be asked (as Europeans can only ask questions founded on the phenomena of a climate subject to rain), whether there be any phenomena peculiar to the climate which cannot be anticipated à priori?

Replies to the above questions relative to the different phenomena which are observed in Peru.

Notwithstanding the person who is solicited to make the replies, has not himself been in the low parts of Peru, where it never rains, still the communication he has had with several individuals who have resided there for a great length of time, enables him to speak satisfactorily to several of the questions; and he does this with the greater pleasure, from a conviction that investigations of such a nature tend to the advancement of the natural sciences, and the welfare of the human race.

1. In low Peru, that is, throughout the extent of the occidental coast of South America, situated towards the part of the Andes which takes a western direction, commonly called the valley of Tumbes, comprehended between five and fifteen degrees of south latitude, rain has never been known to fall.

2. The whole of this tract of territory is constantly sheltered from the east winds by the Cordilleras of mountains named the Andes.

3. The height of those mountains, employing a mean proportion, is estimated at fifteen thousand feet above the level of the sea; there are, however, several peaks which rise higher than the rest, and have, unquestionably, an elevation of more than twenty thousand feet.

4. The summits of the above-mentioned mountains are commonly covered with clouds, except during the months of January, February, and March, in the northern part of the Cordillera, when it usually happens that the fogs and clouds disappear altogether, the tops of the mountains being covered with snow. The clouds by which they are overspread during the rest of the year, are supposed to be carried thither, by the east winds, from the Atlantic ocean.

5. The clouds which are observed in the Cordilleras, never pass over the frozen peaks noticed in the preceding reply; they ordinarily maintain and support themselves beneath that altitude, dissolving, in the position they have taken, into rain and vapours, frequently accompanied by lightning and terrible bursts of thunder.

6. The winds which constantly blow in the districts where it never rains, are from the south, their course being parallel to the direction of the Cordilleras.

7. These south winds are invariably accompanied by fogs, which deposit themselves in dews in the parts where rain does not fall.

8. This question is answered by the antecedent reply. The earth being there constantly dry, the vapours which occasionally rise out of it are too inconsiderable to be able to support vegetation. Hence it results, that the great dews which are known to fall, arise from the evaporation of the South Sea; the latter are not, however, so considerable as they are thought to be in Europe. Vegetation and culture, in those districts, are alone in perfection in the vallies which enjoy the advantage of a rivulet, or of the branch of a river, by the means of which they may be watered.

9. This question is answered in the preceding reply.

10. and 11. There are many rivulets and small rivers, termed quebradas, the whole of which have their origin in the mountains situated in the eastern part of Peru.

12. The length of the district in which it never rains is computed at ten degrees of latitude, each of them containing twenty maritime leagues. The breadth of this district may be estimated at fifteen leagues, more or less.

13. The phenomenon which results from the want of rain in low Peru, is an atmosphere perpetually loaded with fogs, which melt away into dews, without ever producing the meteors of thunder and lightning, such as are observed in the countries subject to rains, &c.

14. I do not know whether there are any rainbows in the districts referred to. Never having been in that part of the country, I am equally at a loss to reply to several other points in the question. The rest is answered antecedently.

15. I am unacquainted with any phenomena peculiar to Peru, those excepted which have already been recapitulated.

^*_*^*The answers to the preceding queries may tend to throw further light on a point which has engaged the attention of the philosophic world. The gentleman by whom the queries were proposed, has perhaps justly ascribed the peculiar phenomena of the Peruvian climate to the effect of the Andes mountains on the electricity of the atmosphere. In 1795, he publicly expressed the opinion, that the same effects may be produced artificially on other countries, by the erection of metallic conductors of a sufficient height. The solution of this problem must depend on experiments, the magnitude of which, as well as the expences attendant on them, must be reserved for a future and more philosophic age. In the interim, it is pleasing to contemplate, that, by availing ourselves of the means which Nature has pointed out to us, we might, on this suggestion, be able to convert the variable and fickle atmosphere of Great Britain, into a climate as serene, steady, and beautiful, as that of low Peru.

1. The limits which we ascribe to Peru, and which are deduced from the contemplation of the equinoxes, the solstices, and the varieties of the soil and climates, agree with those established by the political demarcations executed by the Yncas.
2. To elucidate this subject as much as possible, it is proper in this place to state, that the part of South America comprehended between the Equator and the Tropic of Capricorn, is divided, north and south, by three Cordilleras, or chains of mountains. First, that of Brazil, which, commencing about the Equinoctial Line, runs to the Sierras, or mountainous territory of Maldonado, in the river of La Plata. Secondly, the eastern one of Peru, which, originating in the snow-clad mountains of Santa Martha, on the confines of the northern sea, runs, as has been said, towards the Tropic, from whence it takes an inclined direction towards the south-east, and terminates in the plains of the great Chaco. Thirdly, the western one, which proceeds from North America, passes the isthmus of Panama, and redoubles the whole of the southern coast to Cape Horn. Between the northern sea and the first Cordillera, lies Brazil; between the first and second, lie the great and lofty plains of the country of the Amazons; and, in the line in which these plains terminate, the second Cordillera commences, as does also Peru, which is comprehended within this one and the third. The ancient Yncas gave to each of them the name of Ritisuyu, which signifies a band of snow; and as the four cardinal points, which they called Tavantinsuyu, were denoted by the subjugated nations which they viewed towards them, that of the Antis, which is to the east of Cuzco, gave the name, as well to the mountains which descend from the second Cordillera into the plains, as to this same Cordillera which precedes them. We still preserve these distinctions, having corrupted the word Antis into Andes, and afterwards applied the same term to the south Cordillera. We say that both these Cordilleras lie beneath the Equator, since, notwithstanding in the province of Popayan they are already divided and parallel, their mountains are so low, that at two degrees to the north, they have not the fourth part of the elevation of those of the south. Hence it is that the climate is very different from that of high Peru.
3. Taking it for granted that, in consequence of the parched and dry state of the declivities of the southern mountains, and of the insalubrity of the summits of the Cordillera, it would be impossible to people and cultivate them, we can venture to assert that, even if it were practicable to execute both, the curvatures, declivities, and hollows of the mountains would not add one handful of useful soil to that which their bases would afford, if they did not exist. This proposition, paradoxical as it may appear, is an incontestible truth, since all the trees which are planted on the convex superficies of a mountain have to stand perpendicularly to the horizon, and must consequently have, on the horizontal base, as many points of correspondence and support as they occupy in the mountain. Hence it results that, the space which the plane affords being already filled up, nothing more can be planted or sown in all the unequal surfaces of the mountain by which it is occupied. It is equally demonstrable, that a mountainous territory can contain no more houses or inhabitants than the base it occupies, supposing it levelled.
4. Father Amrich, in his complete history, in manuscript, of the missions to the Andes mountains, asserts, that there is another of these junctions in the province of Jaen De Bracamoros.
5. Bouguer, Figure de la Terre, p. 31.
6. By the description we are about to give, it will be apparent that Peru consists entirely of two Cordilleras, which, by the declivities that unite them, form La Sierra, and one of which, by its opposite sides, composes the mountains of the Andes, while the other, in a similar way, composes the coast. If the division of Peru be to he taken from the direction of the summits of the mountains, by which, according to the idea of Don Ulloa, in his American Notices, it is separated into the higher and lower worlds, the mountains belong exclusively to this plan of division. But if the distinctive characteristics be to be drawn from the qualities of the soil and climate, Peru should be divided into three parts, as has been done by Father Acosta, in his Natural History, page 175. These divisions are as follow: ist, the mountains of the Andes; 2d, La Sierra; and 3d, the coast, or plains. Charadleristics of the first; constant rain, every where mountainous, the temperature warm; of the second, regular seasons, meteors; of the third, dryness, the temple of the spring. Since the principal aim of divisions consists of order and perspicuity in the subject matter treated of, we shall endeavour to preserve both, by adopting the first division; and although, in describing the low world, we have confined ourselves to the bare mention of the coast, we shall, on a future opportunity, enter into a particular examination of the corresponding sections.
7. In the hypothesis of the motion of the earth and universal gravitation, the centrifugal force, augmented beneath the Equator, should, to produce the mountains of the Andes, have given them a direction east and west, as is the case with the mountains of the Moon in Africa. Thus, did they in reality run north and south, the hypothesis would be overturned; but our new observations convince us of the contrary. The above-mentioned directions having been examined with the nicest attention, it appears that neither the particular serieses proceed precisely from east to west, nor the junction of them north and south. The latter declines to the south-east, and the particular serieses decline in the same proportion, to the westward from west to south-west, and to the eastward from east to north-east. The reason of this is, that South America does not completely intersect the Equator. Thus, if a line were to be drawn through its middle, longitudinally, it would form with the Equinoctial Line an angle of sixty degrees only, instead of ninety. To restore the directions of our cordileras in such a way as that they should look precisely towards the cardinal points, it would be necessary that a comet, such as the one of which Whiston dreamed, should make its appearance, should suddenly attach this continent to Cape Horn, and push it thirty degrees to the westward.
8. Vanier, Praed. page 117.
   These lines may be thus freely translated:
   "O happy people, to whom the earth pours forth her stores at will; on whom providence has bestowed summers, the coolness of which emulate the spring; winters without cold; a cloudless firmament; and a soil highly fertile without showers."
9. It is certain that no part of the earth supplies a greater proportion of water to the sea than the cordiliera of the Andes. In his voyage, Condamine has very justly observed, "that the rivers which intersect the country of the Amazons are not rivers, but seas of fresh water," The celebrated Indus of Asia, the Nile of Africa, and the Danube of Europe, can scarcely be brought into a comparison with the Ucayali, Beni, and other rivers which unite in the formidable Maranon.
10. The barometrical observations of Paris being compared with those of our coast, they will be found to be on the same level. Now, M. Charles was carried 1368 toises over the plane of Paris. The plane of Quito exceeds that of the banks of the Pacific Ocean from 1500 to 1600 toises; and the surface of the city of Huancavelica 1949; consequently Messrs. Charles and Robert did not attain the heighten which the cities of La Sierra are placed.
11. M. Bouguer, who acknowledges that the fertile plains of Quito, Riobamba, &c. are, as has been above stated, from 1500 to 1600 toises higher than the level of the sea, in speaking of them, makes the following observation: "I fancied I saw France, and its verdant plains, in the state in which they are during the spring season."
12. An allusion is here made to the golden suns worn by the ancient sovereigns of Peru.
13. The academicians who visited Peru to measure a degree of the meridian under the Equator, have, in their different works, described, in terms of the highest admiration, the extraordinary phenomenon which is seen at sun-rise on our cordiileras, and which they discovered for the first time in the wild heaths of Pambamarca. "At day-break," observes Ulloa, "the whole of the mountain was enveloped in dense clouds, which at sun-rise were dissipated, leaving behind them vapours of so extreme a tenuity as not to be distinguishable to the sight. At the side opposite to that where the sun rose on the above mountain, and at the distance of about sixty yards from the spot where we were standing, the image of each of us was seen represented, as if in a mirror, three concentric irises, the last, or most exterior colours of one of which touched the first of the following one, being centered on the head. Without the whole of them, and at an inconsiderable distance, was seen a fourth are purely white. They were all perpendicular to the horizon; and in proportion as any one of us moved from one side to the other, he was accompanied by the phenomenon, which preserved the same order and disposition. What was, however, most remarkable, was this, that although six or seven persons were thus standing close together, each of us saw the phenomenon as it regarded himself, but did not perceive it in the others. This is a kind of apotheosis," adds Bouguer, "in which each of the spectators, seeing his head adorned with a glory formed of three or four concentric crowns of a very vivid colour, each of them presenting varieties similar to those of the first rainbow, tranquilly enjoys the sensible pleasure of reflecting that the brilliant garland he cannot discover in the others, is destined for himself alone." As, at the same time that the sun produces the above-mentioned irises on the vapours which float over the summit of the mountains, its rays, attacked by the continual snows which environ them, are refracted and decomposed, a beautiful throne is formed, calculated to impress the spectator with an idea that he sees before him the Mount Tabor of holy writ.
14. Dignum fieri existimans, quod cum mundi sint inflnici, nondum uniusdominus foret. Plut. de tranq. an.
15. The earth is a sphere, the Equator of which consists of 360 degrees; consequently, allowing to each degree twenty-five leagues, the result will give to its circumference 9000; and as the ratio of the diameter to its circumference is nearly as one to three, the diameter of the earth may be estimated at 3000 leagues. The superficies of a sphere is obtained by multiplying the circumference of its greater circles by its diameters; therefore, by multiplying 30CO by 9000, it will be found to contain a superficies of about twenty-seven millions of square leagues, deducting the curvature of the mountains. On a comparison of the continents and habitable islands with the seas, it will appear that they scarcely occupy the third part of the globe; consequently, their entire superficies should be about nine millions of square leagues.
16. It is the opinion of the celebrated Bouguer, that the solidity of the Cordillera does not correspond with its bulk, on account of the caverns of the volcanoes; these are, however, very small, when compared with the mountains which announce themselves to be solid, and to be every where composed of metallic portions. In the year 1681, a mass of rock having been detached, by the lightning, from the famous Illimani, a mountain of the first magnitude, so large a quantity of gold was extracted from if, that it was sold, in the city of La Paz, at the rate of eight piastres (about 1l. 16s. sterling) per ounce, precisely the one half of the then current price of gold in Peru. Notwithstanding the elevation of the above mountain is far greater than that of the Cordillera in general, so as to prevent its mines from being regularly worked, a certain quantity of gold is still extracted from it. Many other mountains might be cited, the silver veins of which are buried in the snow.