22 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF PERU. 



thern hemisphere, it spreads precisely over the whole of the 

 space which the sun declines from the centre of the sphere, 

 to animate it by its benign influence. Its breadth, which we 

 shall place between two hundred and ninety-seven and three 

 hundred and ten degrees of longitude, the first meridian being 

 taken at the Peak of Teneriffe, varies according as the coasts 

 are at a greater or smaller distance from the Cordillera, or 

 chain of mountains. From the Line to the eighth degree, 

 there is a separation of about one hundred and twenty leagues ; 

 but hence, insensibly as it were, gaining ground, its greatest 

 distance, at the eighteenth degree, is reduced to seventy 

 leagues only. By choosing a middle term between these two 

 extremes, and allowing twenty leagues to the degree, the re- 

 sult gives to Peru a plane superficies of 44,650 square leagues*. 



The whole of this vast superficies serves as a basis to the 

 great Cordillera of the Andes, which, separating majestically 

 beneath the Equator, and forming two branches, the eastern 

 and the western, parallel to each other, and, for the greater 

 part, to the southern coasts, proceeds on to the Tropic of 

 Capricorn. In its way, the eastern branch takes a bend to- 

 wards the south-east, and terminates in the plains. The 

 western branch penetrates into the kingdom of Chile f. The 



highest 



* The limits which we ascribe to Peru, and which are deduced from the con- 

 templation of the equinoxes, the solstices, and the varieties of the soil and climates, 

 agree with those established by the political demarcations executed by the Yncas. 



f To elucidate this subjedt as much as possible, it is proper in this place to state, 

 that the part of Soutli America comprehended between the Equator and the Tropic 

 of Capricorn, is divided, north and south, by three Cordilleras, or chains of moun- 

 tains. First, tliat of Brazil, which, commencing about the Equinodlial Line, runs 



to 



