34 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF PERU, 



If these brilliant traits point out the predile6lion of Nature 

 for Peru, the influence that territory possesses in the equili- 

 brium of the terraqueous globe, is not less demonstrated. Ac- 

 cording to astronomical observations, and physical demon- 

 strations, the earth does not repose in the centre of the uni- 

 verse, but turns on its axis from the west to the east, and, 

 by a second revolution, runs through all the signs of the Zo- 

 diac. By the means of the first of these movements we are 

 stationed in the twilight of the morning ; next, beneath the 

 glare of mid-day ; next, within the confines of night ; and, 

 lastly, we are buried in its shades. This alternation enables 

 us to see daily the magnificent spe6lacle of the creation of the 

 earth ; since the gently sloping hills, the plains, and the seas, 

 which darkness seemed to have annihilated, rise, in a manner, 

 out of the chaotic void, at the birth of Aurora. By the se- 

 cond movement, we are transported from one region to ano- 

 ther ; and when we imagine that we do not quit the first 

 points, relatively to. the firmament occupied by Peru at the 

 date of its primitive existence, we live in reality a part of the 

 year in the north, and the other in the south. 



Such mutations, which truly appal those who contemplate 

 them, being dependent on the motion of the earth, cannot be 



of the first rainbow, tranquilly enjoys the sensible pleasure of refle£ting that the bril- 

 liant garland he cannot discover in the others, is destined for himself alone." As, 

 at the same time that the sun produces the above-mentioned irises on the vapours 

 which float over fne summit of the mountains, its rays, attacked by the continual 

 snows which environ them, are refradled and decomposed, a beautiful throne is 

 formed, calculated to impress the spe£lator with an idea that he sees before him the 

 Mount Tabor of holy writ. 



' produced 



