Summits of the Cordillera of the Andes. 351 



height is far superior to that of the Peak. We might also re- 

 mark, that the Pyrenees had been traversed by learned acade- 

 micians, supplied with powerful instruments, and that they still 

 gave out that Canigou was the highest top in the chain ; whereas 

 we now know, that not only Malahite, Mount Perdu, the Cy- 

 lindre, &c. surpass it by 1968 feet ; but also that, at a short dis- 

 tance from this mountain, within the same limits of the depart- 

 ment of the Eastern Pyrenees, there are summits which, accord- 

 ing to the late observations of M. Coraboeuf, exceed it in height 

 nearly 460 feet. We need not be astonished then, if, from 

 time to time, certain peaks descend from the rank, as to height, 

 which was once assigned them. Mont Blanc itself, so long in 

 possession of the first place in the system of European moun- 

 tains, came to lose it afterwards, from an imperfect measurement 

 of the summits of Mount Rose. Now Chimborazo has, in its 

 turn, to lose its pre-eminence. This mountain, so celebrated in 

 the works of Bouguer, of La Condamine, and above all in those 

 of M. Humboldt, is not the highest in the world, as has been 

 supposed for so many years *. It is not even the highest summit 

 of the Cordilleras. 



Mr Pentland, an active and enterprizing naturalist, who was 

 attached to the Peruvian embassy, was induced, by the love of 

 science, to solicit a mission into Upper Peru, a region hitherto 

 but little explored. During his journey he attended particularly 

 to the heights of the mountains, and found that their elevation 

 much exceeded what was generally supposed. 



The great mass of the Andes, from 14° to 20° south latitude, 

 according to Mr Pentland, is divided into two chains or parallel 

 Cordilleras, between which there is a very extensive elevated 

 valley. The south extremity of this valley is traversed by the 

 r'wer Desagtmkro ; to the north is the famous Lake of Titicaca, 

 of an extent equal to twenty-five times that of the Lake of Ge- 

 neva. This great valley forms a kind of table-land, the most 

 elevated on the globe, except Thibet ; but, while Thibet pre- 

 sents only ranges of mountain pasture, covered with herds of 

 sheep, this table-land of the New World supports cities above 

 the regions of the clouds, even higher than the snow-covered 

 pinnacle of the Jungfrau ; post stations higher than the summit 



" This has been proved already by the heights in the Himalaya range. 



