THE CORDILLERAS. 331 



table-lands ; again, however, to unite and spread out into 

 numerous rugged sierras. 



The western portion of these ranges is properly the Cor- 

 dilleras ; while the eastern, which slopes towards the wide- 

 extending plains of Brazil, forms the true Andes. The southern 

 portion skirts the bleak shores of Patagonia in a single sierra, 

 for a distance of nearly one thousand miles, in some parts 

 rising to the height of seven thousand feet above the ocean. 

 Entering Chili, the mountains rise higher and higher, till they 

 culminate in the mighty peak of Aconcagua, the- most lofty 

 height of the whole range. 



At the boundary-line of Bolivia the chain separates into 

 two portions, enclosing the great table-land of Desuguadero, 

 thirteen thousand feet above the sea. At one end of this lofty 

 region is the city of Pptosi, rising above the clouds the 

 highest in the world, erected amid the groans and tears of 

 the hapless natives compelled to labour at its far-famed silver- 

 mines. At the other is found Cuzco, the ancient capital of 

 the Incas. Between them lies the Lake of Titicaca, the centre 

 of bygone Peruvian civilization. 



Running still parallel with the coast, and looking down 

 upon the modern city of Lima, the range passes through 

 Peru till it again divides in three portions at the confines of 

 the equator, where it once more forms two lines, which rise in 

 that magnificent congregation of mountains which surround 

 the famous Valley of Quito. Here no less than twenty-one 

 volcanoes rear their lofty summits, many of them crowned 

 with perpetual snow, amid which Chimborazo and Cotopaxi 

 are pre-eminent. 



To the north of the equator, the Cordilleras again form one 

 vast ridge, and passing through New Granada, spread out like 



