428 SOUTH AMEEICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



of difficult access. The group culminates in a peak in the islet of San Ambrosio,. 

 830 feet high. The Morro Amarilla, in the neighbouring San Felix, falls to 600 

 feet, while another rock, 174 feet high, has received from an English navigator 

 the name of "Peterborough Cathedral" from the curious resemblance to that 

 edifice presented by its two towers crowned with pinnacles, its pillars of columnar 

 basalt and the deep porch-like recesses at its base. 



The group of islets bearing the name of their discoverer, Juan Fernandez, have 

 been known, like San Ambrosio, since 1574, when the Spanish navigator sighted 

 them on his voyage from Peru to Chili. This little oceanic world consists of two 

 islands and an islet. In the east rises Mas a Tierra, "Landward," prolonged 

 towards the south by the insular Santa Clara ; some 100 miles farther west is seen 

 Mas a Fuera, " Seaward," which is completely isolated. Mas a Tierra, the 

 larger of the two, and sometimes specially called Juan Fernandez, consists in 

 reality of two distinct sections, one rather low in the south, the other much more 

 elevated in the north-east. Towards the centre rises the pyramidal Yunque, 

 " Anvil," whose peak (3,225 feet) stands out above the forest zone. Although 

 smaller, Mas a Fuera rises more imposingly above the waters, its summit towering 

 to a height of 6,170 feet. 



Surrounded by a boundless expanse of water, and swept by high winds, the 

 Juan Fernandez group receives an abundant rainfall. During the wet season, 

 from about April to September, the northern and north-eastern gales prevail, 

 bringing frequent downpours ; but even in the summer season from October to 

 March showers fall at night, and morning, the weather clearing up in the after- 

 noon. 



Easter Island and Sala-y-Gomez, which have been occupied by Chili, are 

 members of the Polynesian insular world. 



III. 

 Hydrography of Chili. 



The western slopes of the Chilian Andes approach too near the coast to allow 

 space for the development of any large river basins. Most of the fluvial valleys 

 themselves are disposed at right angles to the cordillera, and consequently reach 

 the Pacific Ocean by the shortest and most rapid course. Under the rainless skies 

 of the recently annexed Peruvian and Bolivian territories, and of the northern 

 districts of Chili proper, the rivers are mere wadies, dry in their lower reaches, or 

 even in the mountain gorges themselves. Farther south the watercourses assinue 

 more the aspect of torrents tumbling over cascades and rapids, and flowing in a 

 more tranquil current only in the neighbourhood of the coast. 



The Rigs Sama, Loa, Aconcagua. 



In the extreme north the so-called rios, whose sands are occasionally 

 moistened by the melting snows, are known only as political or administrative 



