296 STBUCTUBE OF THE AXDE3. 



its name from the Turkish word altor or altyn, in the same 

 manner the Cordilleras may have been termed " Copper- 

 country," or Anti-suyu, on account of the abundance of 

 that metal, which the Peruvians employed for their tools. 

 The Inca Garcilasso, who was the son of a Peruvian princess, 

 and who wrote the history of his native country in the 

 first years of the conquest, gives no etymology of the 

 name of the Andes. He only opposes Anti-suyu, or the 

 region of summits covered with eternal snow (ritiseca), to 

 the plains or Tim-cos, that is, to the lower region of Peru. 

 The etymology of the name of the largest mountain chain 

 of the globe cannot be devoid of interest to the minera- 

 logic geographer. 



The structure of the Cordillera of the Andes, that is, 

 its division into several chains nearly parallel, which are 

 again joined by knots of mountains, is very remarkable. 

 On our maps this structure is indicated but imperfectly ; 

 and what La Condamine and Bouguer merely guessed, 

 during their long visit to the table-land of Quito, has been 

 generalized and ill-interpreted by those who have described 

 the whole chain according to the type of the equatorial Andes. 

 The following is the most accurate information I could 

 collect by my own researches, and an active correspondence 

 of twenty years with the inhabitants of Spanish America. 

 The group of islands called Tierra del Fuego, in which the 

 chain of the Andes begins, is a plain extending from Cape 

 Espiritu Santo as far as the canal of San Sebastian. The 

 country on the west of this canal, between Cape San 

 Valentino and Cape Pilares, is bristled with granitic moun- 

 tains covered (from the Morro de San Agueda to Cabo 

 Redoudo) with calcareous shells. Navigators have greatly 

 exaggerated the height of the mountains of Tierra del 

 Puego, among which there appears to be a volcano still 

 burning. M. de Churruca found the height of the western 

 peak of Cape Pilares (lat. 52 45' south) only 218 toises ; 

 even Cape Horn is probably not more than 500 toises* 

 high. The plain extends on the northern shore of the 

 Straits of Magellan, from the Virgin's Cape to Cabo Negro ; 



* It is very distinctly seen at the distance of 60 miles, which, without 

 calculating the effects of terrestial refraction, would gi?e it a height of 

 4 1 J8 toises. 



