THE EQUATORIAL ZONE. 283 



After all our high-raised expectations, truth nevertheless 

 obliges us to own that disappointment is our prevailing 

 sensation when we land on the coast of Peru. Instead of 

 anything like the luxuriance of a tropical vegetation, sterility 

 characterizes these shores of the Pacific Ocean; and except 

 where the hand of man has brought portions of land into 

 cultivation, Nature refuses to yield her produce. And so, 

 in our disappointment we wander on, wishing that here 

 and there, at least, the stern heights of the mountains were 

 softened by green forests. But throughout the greater part 

 of this western side of the Andes, so dried up and parched 

 for want of water, our eyes are unrefreshed by sights like 

 these. 



Novelty in the only kind of vegetation which contrives 

 to exist here, is the chief compensation for the absence of 

 verdure; for very far removed from anything European 

 in appearance are the different kinds of Cactus we now see 

 everywhere ; which, though some species are to be met with 

 in more temperate climates, seem to reach their greatest 

 perfection in this zone, and to delight in the intense heat 

 and the dry barren soil, where scarcely anything else could 

 live : they grow too at all elevations, " extending from the 

 level of the sea almost to the limit of perpetual snow." 



