on the West Coast of South America. 155 



mous city of Potosi, which stands on the internal or grand Cordillera of 

 the Andes in Upper Peru ; about 100 miles E. by N. from Potosi is the 

 City of La Plata, or, giving its Indian name, Chuquisaca, which is the 

 capital of Bolivia. All these towns are so far above the level of the sea 

 as to seem incredible to some persons, who have not sufficiently con- 

 sidered the inequalities of the earth's surface. 



The city of La Paz, though built at the bottom of a deep valley, yet 

 is elevated 12,000 feet above the sea ; Oruro is 12,400 ; Cochabamba is 

 10,000 ; Chuquisaca, which stands on the eastern extremity of the lateral 

 chain of the main Cordillera of the Andes, is 9000 feet ; and the parade 

 ground in Potosi, where I have seen troops reviewed, is 13,500 feet above 

 the level of the ocean. 



Along the coast, 300 miles NW. from Arica, is the city of Arequipa ; 

 it stands on the western slope of the Andes of the coast, at the altitude 

 of about 7600 feet above the sea-level. It has now 40,000 people, and 

 is very well built ; the best houses and public edifices are constructed 

 with large blocks of pumice-stone, which is not unlike grey granite ; 

 many oAhe roofs are arched with the same sort of stone, as the arch 

 sustains better than any other kind of roof shocks of earthquakes, of 

 which the people there live in continual fear, for, since the foundation of 

 Arequipa in 1540, it has been five times totally destroyed by earthquakes, 

 the last of which happened in 1784. Behind the city, its celebrated vol- 

 cano rises 17,000 feet above the ocean, its arid summit unlike the snow- 

 capped peaks of the Andes in the immediate vicinity. This volcano is 

 said to be the most perfect specimen of a natural cone of such magnitude 

 yet discovered on the earth ; it sides are covered with dark coloured sand 

 or ashes, which towards the higher region is loose and deep. 



On the road through the desert from Tacna to Arequipa, between Lo- 

 quirubo and Moquegua, numerous marine shells are seen in the sand, at 

 a distance from and above the sea. They are similar to those which at 

 present are found on that coast within the tide limits, thus indicating 

 that, at do very remote epoch, there has been in that locality either an 

 elevation of the land, or a subsidence of the waters of the ocean. At 

 Tacna, prior to the great earthquake of 1831, every shock was preceded 

 by a subterranean noise ; but this warning has been seldom if ever heard 

 since 8th October 1831. Formerly people had time to run from their 

 houses to some open place between the commencement of the noisejind 

 the shock. This subterranean noise was not unlike that of thunder, as 

 it is heard when rolling among the valleys of the Andes, far below places 

 where the traveller has to traverse those mountains. 



Having heard it alleged, that, at Tacna, a person with his ear to the 

 ground might occasionally hear subterranean sounds, as of heavy bodies 

 falling, I tried the experiment, and frequently lay down on a mat ; the 

 result was, that subterranean soiuidswere at times heard, as if some pon- 

 derous body had fallen in a cavity, but which I suppose were only slight 

 convulsions of tho same nature as those which at times are so loud and 



