CHAPTER XIII 



THE EASTERN ANDES: THE CORDILLERA VILCAPAMPA 



The culminating range of the eastern Andes is the so-called 

 Cordillera Vilcapampa. Its numerous, sharp, snow-covered peaks 

 are visible in every summit view from the central portion of the 

 Andean system almost to the western border of the Amazon basin. 

 Though the range forms a water parting nearly five hundred miles 

 long, it is crossed in several places by large streams that flow 

 through deep canyons bordered by precipitous cliffs. The Uru- 

 bamba between Torontoy and Colpani is the finest illustration. 

 For height and ruggedness the Vilcapampa mountains are among 

 the most noteworthy in Peru. Furthermore, they display glacial 

 features on a scale unequaled elsewhere in South America north 

 of the ice fields of Patagonia. 



GLACIERS AND GLACIAL FORMS 



One of the most impressive sights in South America is a 

 tropical forest growing upon a glacial moraine. In many places 

 in eastern Bolivia and Peru the glaciers of the Ice Age were from 

 5 to 10 miles long — almost the size of the Mer de Glace or the 

 famous Rhone glacier. In the Juntas Valley in eastern Bolivia 

 the tree line is at 10,000 feet (3,050 m.), but the terminal moraines 

 lie several thousand feet lower. In eastern Peru the glaciers in 

 many places extended down nearly to the tree line and in a few 

 places well below it. In the Cordillera Vilcapampa vast snow- 

 fields and glacier systems were spread out over a summit area 

 as broad as the Southern Appalachians. The snowfields have 

 since shrunk to the higher mountain recesses; the glaciers have 

 retreated for the most part to the valley heads or the cirque 

 floors ; and the lower limit of perpetual snow has been raised to 

 15,500 feet. 



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