Mancliester Memoirs, Vol. Ix. (1916), No. 6. 19 



is or has been so covered, and the terraces must have 

 numbered millions. The lowest of these terraces are 

 naturally the longest, in conformity with the usual slope 

 of a hill, and they diminish in size as they go upwards, 

 ascending thousands of feet often, from the level of plain 

 and stream up to where they are hidden in clouds and 

 mists. In some cases on the steep ravines or semi-pre- 

 cipitous slopes the top terraces are of a size such as give 

 room only for two or three rows of maize, so industrious 

 were the people and so highly was land considered. More- 

 over they were served by irrigation channels, and these 

 . . . were at times many miles in length." 5 ' 5 



" Further south on this coast-zone of Peru I en- 

 countered remains of long aqueducts, a line traceable for 

 eighty miles along the hill slopes." 56 



Terraces are also found in Ecuador, but it is not said 

 whether they were irrigation terraces. " On many slopes 

 the terraces are one below the other, resembling an 

 enormous flight of huge steps." 57 



Spence says, " It was in works of irrigation, however, 

 that the race (of the Incas) exhibited its greatest 

 engineering genius. In the valley of Nasca the Incas cut 

 deep trenches to reinforce the irrigating power of a small 

 river, and carried the system high up into the mountains, 

 in order that the rainfall coming therefrom might be con- 

 ducted into the needful channel. Lower down the valley 

 the main watercourse is deflected into many branches 

 which irrigate each estate by feeding the small surface 

 streams. The system adequately serves the fifteen estates 

 of Nasca to-day ! Another high level canal for the 

 irrigation of pasture-lands was led for more than a 



55 C. R. Enoch, "The Secret of the Pacific," pp. 180-1. 



56 Ibid, p. 187. 



57 M. II. Saville, "Contributions to South American Archaeology. The 

 Antiquities of Manati, Ecuador/' New York, 1907, I., p. 22. 



