Scientific Reviews. 25 



Btruction. Towns are met with at moderate distances^ and some at 

 a considerable elevation. The pampas in parts nearest to the cities 

 are oftentimes divided by hedges or rows of trees, whilst herds of 

 cattle may be seen feeding on the more distant and open parts. 

 The houses of the city are tiled and white- washed, and built in 

 quadras, and give to the whole an effect of European scenery. 



From the mouth of Coppermine river to Terra del Fuego, 

 bridges of stone are very rarely to be met with., and on the Andes 

 of Peru, as on the Rocky JMountains, or in the virgin forests of 

 Brazil, the streams and torrents are traversed by a few trees, often- 

 times thrown across ravines of immense depth. Difficulties of this 

 kind, which our author met with, were counterbalanced by the 

 effect of these situations ; the rocky glen clothed with vegetation, 

 the vast sea of mountains, and the condor, the magnificent vulture 

 of the Andes, hovering about the rocks, on which they build theiJr 

 nests, render the scenery very striking ; but to count the number- 

 less beauties contained in the contrasted magnificence of the organic 

 and inorganic world of the Andes of Peru would strain the eye- 

 balls of any lover of the picturesque, and could only be felt in detail 

 by the observing and contemplative natural historian. 



There is, however, another source of reflection. On these high 

 plains evident and extensive marks of old Peruvian cultivation are 

 found, the furrows or ridges of which have rather the appearance of 

 the crops having been lately reaped, than'of having lain dormant for 

 ages. It is, our author states, well ascertained that the Spaniards, 

 having driven the Indians from this and other agricultural districts, 

 reduced the population of Peru from about ten millions to its present 

 estimate of two millions ; and this fine district must at some period 

 have supported many thousands of inhabitants, whilst at the present 

 day all is desolate. Thus, Colchica, which once was covered with 

 cities, and engaged in an immense commerce, has for many years 

 back been a vast forest, where a few weak and miserable tribes wan- 

 der Avithout a home. Thus the flourishing nations of Hircania and 

 Bactriana have disappeared, undermined by vicious institutions, or 

 falling before the arm of power, losing their independence, and be- 

 coming the provinces of states, themselves destined, in their sub- 

 jugation, to mark the frailty of human things. 



But we are not eclectic ; and while we think that the causes of 

 the ruin and extinction of nations cannot be too much studied, we 

 think that the pr(^ressive march of science will do more towards 

 elucidating the history of nations than the intellect of man can 

 ever accomplish from the unassisted study of the traditions or the 

 dogmas of his ancestors, or of his contemporaries. 



Mr. Maw crossed the ridge of the Cordillera from Chacapoyas 

 to Toulea by night. His course was along a valley, which gra- 

 dually contracted into a glen, and shortly afterwards into a ra- 

 vine, down which the river, changing into a powerful mountain 

 torrent, foamed with considerable noise. Whenever sufficient earth 

 allowed trees to grow, they bent over the path, whilst the bril- 



VOL. II. D 



