CHAPTER HI. 



VALLEY OF THE AMAZON. 



|TANDING on the eastern spur of the Andes, be- 

 tween 3° and 4° south of the equator, the eye of 

 the traveller may see in imagination a vast valley, 

 clothed with a dense forest, stretching towards the far distant 

 Atlantic. Behind him, on the west, tower the lofty peaks of 

 the Cordilleras ; on his left, in a northerly direction, appear 

 the mountains and highlands of Venezuela and Guiana ; while 

 to the south rise the serras and table-lands of the Brazils. It 

 is the Valley of the Amazon, in which more than half of 

 Europe might be contained. Down the centre flows a mighty 

 stream, the tributaries of which alone contain a bulk of water 

 greater than all the European rivers put together. 



Upwards of five hundred miles away to the south of the 

 spot where the traveller stands, is the little lake of Lauricocha, 

 near the silver-mines of Cerro de Pasco in Peru, just below 

 the limit of perpetual snow — 14,000 feet above the level of 

 the sea. This lake has the honour of giving birth to the 

 mighty stream: its waters forming the River Tunguragua, 

 which, roaring and foaming in a series of cataracts and rapids 

 through rocky valleys, flows northerly till it reaches the 



