ORIGIN OF TUB NAME. 295 



mountains, known by the name of the Copper Mountains, 

 visited by Captain Franklin. The colossal peak of Saint 

 Elias and that of Mount Fairweather, in New Norfolk, do 

 not, properly speaking, belong to the northern prolongation 

 of the Cordilleras of the Andes, but to a parallel chain (the 

 maritime Alps of the north-west coast), stretching towards 

 the peninsula of California, and connected by transversal 

 ridges with a mountainous land, between 45 and 53 of 

 latitude, with the Andes of New Mexico (Rocky Moun- 

 tains). In South America the mean breadth of the Cor- 

 dillera of the Andes is from 18 to 22 leagues.* It is only 

 in the knots of the mountains, that is where the Cordillera 

 Ls swelled by side-groups or divided into several chains 

 nearly parallel, and re-uniting at intervals, for instance, on 

 the south of the lake of Titicaca, that it is more than 100 

 to 120 leagues broad, in a direction perpendicular to its axis. 

 The Andes of South America bound the plains of the 

 Orinoco, the Amazon, and the liio de la Plata, on the west, 

 like a rocky wall raised across a crevice 1300 leagues long, 

 and stretching from south to north. This upheaved part 

 (if I may be permitted to use an expression founded on a 

 geological hypothesis), comprises a surface of 58,900 square 

 leagues, between the parallel of Cape Pilesar, and the 

 northern Choco. To form an idea of the variety of rocks 

 which this space may furnish for the observation of the 

 traveller, we must recollect that the Pyrenees, according 

 to the observations of M. Charpentier, occupy only 768 

 square sea leagues. 



The name of Andes in the Quichua language (which wants 

 the consonants d,f, and g] Antis, or Ante, appears to me to be 

 derived from the Peruvian word anta, signifying copper or 

 metal in general. Anta chacra signifies mine of copper; 

 antacnri, copper mixed with gold ; and puca anta, copper, 

 or red metal. As the group of the Altai mountains t takes 



* The breadth of this immense chain is a phenomenon well worthy of 

 attention. The Swiss Alps extend, in the Grisons and in the Tyrol, to a 

 breadth of 36 and 40 leagues, both in the meridians of the lake of 

 Como, the canton of Appenzell, and in the meridian of Bassano and 

 Tegernsee. 



t Klaproth, Asia polyglotta, p. 211. it appears to me less probable 

 that the tribe of the Anus gave its name to the mountains of Peru. 



