THE MONTANA REGION OF PERU. 399 



together with many other valuable products of different 

 kinds. This trans- Andean province of Peru there can be 

 little doubt will one day assume its proper place, as the 

 most valuable of all the possessions of the Peruvian Re- 

 public. It is here too that the head waters of the great 

 river Amazon (called the Maranon by the Peruvians) 

 take their rise, and flow almost uninterruptedly by 

 navigable channels to the Atlantic. 



In our section on the great river systems of the world 

 we hope to be able to furnish more specific details as 

 to these South American rivers ; a glance at the map 

 is however sufficient to show the vastly more numerous 

 and more important nature of the streams that issue 

 from the Andes, on their eastern watershed, when 

 compared with those that do so on the other side. 



With the exception of the river Guayes in Ecuador, 

 which is navigable for 70 or 80 miles and falls into 

 the sea at Guayaquil there is no other river of im- 

 portance which reaches the ocean upon the Pacific 

 seaboard of South America ; many of the other streams 

 flow westward for a certain distance from the mountains, 

 and then become dried up, and lost in the plains ; 

 while others merely reach the sea, in the dry season, 

 as insignificant rivulets. At many of the sea ports on 

 the western coast (such is the intensity of the drought) 

 the principal building in the town consists of the 

 Water Factory, or place where the supply of drinking 

 water is distilled from the sea, and sold to the inhabi- 

 tants for their daily consumption. 



This remarkable state of things may, as we venture to 

 believe, be set down entirely to the influence exercised 

 by the great range of the Andes upon the climate of 

 South America, where the prevailing set of the winds 



