Physical Geogkaphy of Peru. 433 



ranges, is the land of storms and magnificent scenery ; the 

 region of the potato and alpaca, corn and barley, and mines 

 of precious metals. It is a long plateau, 300 miles wide, 

 walled in by stupendous peaks, many of them reaching far 

 above the limit of perpetual snow. Here are the cities of 

 Cuzco, Ayacucho, and Cerro de Pasco. But much of the 

 region is a cold, uninhabitated puna, a monotonous, tree- 

 less, rolling country, with scarcely a trace of verdure — by 

 no means a land of promise. Yet tliis long valley, reach- 

 ing from Titicaca to the equator, and having an average 

 elevation of 10,000 feet, was the chosen seat of the great 

 Inca nation. The Montana, or forest-i"egion, skirting the 

 eastern slope of the Andes, is little known ; but it only 

 needs an outlet to make it the richest part of Peru. The 

 climate is always humid, and warmer than the same alti- 

 tude on the Pacific slope. 



Peru thus comprehends every degree of latitude from 

 the equator to the snowy regions of Chile, and every alti- 

 tude from the sea to 20,000 feet ; you have only to travel 

 from north to soutli, or from east to west, to go from palm- 

 groves to everlasting winter. 



In Northeastern or Amazonian Peru, hats, aguardiente, 

 salt, turtles, sarsaparilla, tobacco, and hammocks are the 

 main exports ; but as no duties are collected, it is impossi- 

 ble to find the amount Trade has vastly improved since 

 the establishment of steam-navigation on the Great River. 

 Until, however, there is a better port than miserable Balsa 

 Puerto, it must be inconsiderable. In Southeastern Peru 

 the current of trade is almost entirely westward, the roads 

 through Puno and Tacna being the chief highways for 

 Bolivian commerce. 



The total import and export revenue annually collected 

 at the custom-houses on the coast is about $25,000,000. 

 To the railways, now nearly completed by Mr. Meiggs, 

 2E 



