THE FOETEESS OF CANNAE. 241 



The road which led them over the Paramo of Assaay 

 was nearly as hiorh as Mont Blanc. Here it descended a 

 valley, there it ascended a mountain, and a little farther 

 on it stretched monotonously across a level plain. In 

 one of these plains, which was six leagues square in 

 breadth, the travellers found lakes of fresh water of con- 

 siderable depth. These lakes were bordered by a thick turf 

 of Alpine grasses, but contained no fish, and scarcely any 

 aquatic insects. Here they found the remains of the 

 great road of the Incas, which ran by the side of their 

 heavily-laden mules for over a mile. It had a deep under- 

 structure, and was paved with well-cut blocks of blackish 

 trap-porphyry. Nothing that Humboldt had seen of the 

 remains of Roman roads in Italy, the South of France, 

 or Spain, was more imposing than these works of the an- 

 cient Peruvians. They originally formed a line of com- 

 munication through all the provinces of the Empire, 

 extending over a length of more than a thousand 

 miles. 



Proceeding from Assuay towards Cuenca the road led 

 them to the ancient fortress of Cannar. It was on a hill, 

 terminated by a platform, and was in excellent preserva- 

 tion. A wall built of large blocks of freestone, rose to 

 the height of twenty feet, forming a regular oval, the 

 great axis of which was nearly one hundred and twenty 

 feet in length. The interior of this oval was a flat piece 

 of ground, covered with rich vegetation. In the centre 

 of this inclosure stood the Fortress of Cannar, a house 

 containing only two rooms, the walls of which were 

 twenty feet high. It was probably a lodging-place for 

 the Incas, when they .journeyed from Cuzco to the king- 

 dom of Quito. The foundations of a great number of 



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