432 The Andes and the Amazons, 



It is also necessary to understand the peculiar topograpliy 

 of Peru before studying her commercial resources. The 

 word Peru is Indian, but its application to the country 

 was a Spanish blunder. The Incas called it Tahuantin- 

 siiyu, or the land of four parts. As now circumscribed, it 

 contains about half a million square miles. It is a narrow 

 strip of land ; but nature has worked here on a magnif- 

 icent scale. It mainly consists of two colossal ranges of 

 mountains, collectively called the Andes ; but the term 

 Zos Andes belongs only to the eastern chain, while the 

 western is known as the Cordillera de la Costa. The latter 

 is the true water-shed : all the streams flowing east of the 

 summit work their way through the eastern I'ange to the 

 Atlantic, which is doubtless due to the more gradual up- 

 lifting of the latter, giving the streams time to wear their 

 passage. Peru is accordingly divided into three distinct, 

 longitudinal regions — Coast, Sierra, and Montana. The 

 flrst, lying along the Pacific slope, is the land of sunshine. 

 In the main, it is a sandy waste, sprinkled with a saline 

 efflorescence, and presenting a most desolate appearance ; 

 but it is broken by numerous valleys, which, when blessed 

 with a trickling stream, are surpassingly fertile. Except- 

 ing Callao, the towns on the shore are huddles of dingy 

 hovels around a church and custom-house, to which the 

 arrival of a steamer imparts a kind of galvanized life. 

 The length of the coast-line is 1200 miles, or nearly equal 

 to the Atlantic border of the United States. 



The Sierra, or highland plains hung between the two 



La Sociedad, La Patria, LI Pueblo, El Peruana. Callao — El Porvenir, 

 South Pacific Thnes. Cuzco — El Ferro-carril, El Heraldo. Arequipa — 

 La Bolsa, La Verdad. Ayacccho — El Progreso, La Nueva Era. Caja- ' 

 MARCA — El Tiempo, El Correo del Norte. Tru.iillo — El Imparcial. Pl- 

 UKA — El Sol. I5A — El Pueblo. Tarapaca — El Mercurio. Chiclato — 

 El Chiclayano. Iquique — El Mercurio, El Heraldo. PuNO — ElComer- 

 cio. El Ciudadano, La Iglesia Punefia. Tacna — La Luz, La Revista del 

 Sur, 



