THE SIERRA REGION OF PERU. 405 



Peru extends from the shores of the Pacific to the foot- 

 hills of the Cordilleras and varies in width from 40 and 

 50 to nearly 100 miles. Here it is succeeded by the 

 " Sierra" * or Mountain Region, which is about 250 miles 

 in width beyond that again. Eastwards of the mountains 

 is "La Montana" of which we have already spoken. 

 Such are the three divisions into which the Republic 

 of Peru is longitudinally divided. 



Surely it would be difficult to conceive three regions 

 more essentially different in all their characteristics. 

 Yet all of them are lying in the same parallels of 

 latitude, and equally partake of the prolific influences 

 of the tropical sun. Facts such as these however, are 

 needed to teach us the paramount nature of the control 

 which the neighbourhood of a lofty mountain range 

 exercises over climate. 



The country is sharply divided from north to south 

 by the great Andes chain, as if by an impassable 

 gulf. To the east of them lies one of the dampest 

 and rainiest climates in the world, where everything 

 is dripping with moisture. Here vast navigable rivers 

 take their rise; and winding their way through what 

 is probably the greatest and densest tropical forest in 

 the world, discharge themselves, after a course of several 

 thousand miles, by the great Amazon system into the 

 Atlantic ocean. 



To the westward of them lies a parched and thirsty 

 land a country suffering for the greater part of every 

 year under almost complete drought. The sparseness 

 of inhabitants compared with the wide extent of territory 

 however, prevents the results which would naturally 



* Literally in Spanish a "saw," from the likeness born by the jagged 

 peaks of "La Sierra" to the teeth of a saw. 



