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Between these two principal ranges and at an altitude of from 12,000 to 13,000 feet above the sea, are situated the highlands of Bolivia, known as the Altiplanicie, connected with the plateau of Puno, Peru, on the north, and that of the Argentine Republic on the south, and varying in width, east and west, from 20 to 50 leagues. A careful observer thus describes this region:

The Department of Oruro and the western territory of the Departments of La Paz and Potosi mark the highest regions of these elevated plains, so remarkable not only among the physical features of Bolivia, but of the entire globe. The basins of this extended plateau inclose a continental water system, in manyrespects the most unique and interesting in the world.

Here, at a mean level of 12,488 feet above the sea, is Lake Titicaca, almost as large as Lake Erie, and the most elevated sheet of fresh water in the world. This lake, which lies partly in Peru, is 120 miles long and from 30 to 50 miles wide, and, according to Prof. Alexander Agassiz, who took more than sixty-five soundings in various parts, has an average depth of about 100 fathoms. The well-defined and easily traced terraces of its ancient shores leave no room to doubt that Lake Titicaca, within a comparatively recent geological period, formed a vast inland sea, extending pos-