296 COSMOS. 



the valley of Yucay, at an elevation of nearly 12,000 feet 

 (lat. 14 8', long. 71 20'), south-east from Cuzco, where the 

 eastern snowy chain of Apolobamba, Carabaya, and Vilcanoto 

 extends from south-east to north-west. This remarkable 

 point 79 is marked by the ruins of a famous temple of the 

 Inca Viracocha. The distance from the sea of this old lava- 

 producing volcano is far greater than that of Sangay, which 

 also belongs to an eastern Cordillera, and greater than that 

 of Orizaba and Jorullo. 



An interval of 540 miles destitute of volcanoes separates 

 the series of volcanoes of Peru and Bolivia from that of Chili. 

 This is the distance of the eruption in the desert of Atacama 

 from* the volcano of Coquimbo. At 2 34' further to the 

 south, as already remarked, the group of volcanoes of Chili 

 attains its greatest elevation in the volcano of Aconcagua 

 (23,003 feet), which, according to our present knowledge, is 

 also the maximum of all the summits of the new Continent. 

 The average height of the Bahama group is 22,008 feet ; 

 consequently 586 feet higher than Chimborazo. Then follow, 

 diminishing rapidly in elevation, Cotopaxi, Arequipa (?), and 

 Tolima, between 18,877 and 18,129 feet in height. I give, 

 in apparently very exact numbers, and without alteration, 

 the results of measurements which are unfortunately com- 

 pounded from barometrical and trigonometrical determi- 

 nations, because in this way the greatest inducement will 

 be given to the repetition of the measurements and correc- 

 tion of the results. In the series of volcanoes of Chili, of 

 which I have cited 24, it is unfortunately for the most part 

 only the southern and lower ones, from Antuco to Yantales, 

 between the parallels of 37 20' and 43 40', that have been 

 hypsometrically determined. These have the inconsiderable 

 elevation of from six to eight thousand feet. Even in Tierra 

 del Fuego itself the summit of the Sarmiento, covered with 

 perpetual snow, only rises, according to Fitzroy, to 6,821 

 feet. From the volcano of Coquimbo to that of San 

 Clemente the distance is 968 miles. 



79 Pentland, in Mrs. Somerville's Physical Geography (1851), vol. i, 

 p. 185. The Peak of Vilcanoto (17,020 feet), situated in lat. 14 28% 

 forming a portion of the vast mountain group of that name, closes the 

 northern extremity of the plateau, in which the lake of Titicaca, a 

 Mna]l inland sea of 88 miles in length, is situated. 



