Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/21

Rh timber trees, and in the latter there is much pasture land well fitted for cattle breeding.

The department of Atacama, which belongs geographically either to Peru or Chili, forms the only part of Bolivia which comes into contact with the ocean, and is situated between the Andes and the Pacific coast. It is almost entirely desert and sterile, has many volcanoes, and is characterized by rapid changes of temperature; it is almost destitute of population, and is only inhabited in those parts of the coast in which valuable guano deposits are found, or where the nitrate deposits and silver mines in the interior are worked. Near its northern limit is situated the small port of Cobija, the only avenue by which foreign articles of commerce can enter the Bolivian Republic without the payment of transit duties. It has obtained peculiar and valuable privileges as an encouragement to the introduction of merchandise by this route, in preference to the more convenient routes by the Puertos Intermedios, belonging to the Republic of Peru. But the arid nature of the surrounding country, and the great scarcity of water, must greatly retard its advancement, since not only are the inhabitants scantily supplied with this necessary of life, but the mules employed in transporting goods into the interior are exposed to great hardships.

Western Bolivia is the highest and most mountainous country of the two Americas. Five separate systems of mountains, curving from Peru in the north-west and passing south into Chili, may be distinguished as forming its high land. Nearest the Pacific is the range of the outlying coast mountains, which does not exceed 5000 feet in altitude. The range of the true Andes rises farther inland, forming part of the vast chain which extends along the whole of America; in Bolivia it attains an average height of 15,000 feet, and has a general width of 20 miles, having its highest known point here in the volcano of Sahama, 23,000 feet in elevation. Next follows the central system, of the Cordillera Real, also named the eastern Cordillera, presenting a succession of sharp, rugged peaks, reaching up into the region of eternal ice and snow, higher generally than the Andes, but less massive: the peaks of Illimani (21,300 feet) and Sorata (24,800 feet) are its culminating points. Between the Andes and the Cordillera Real there are various Serrania or isolated groups of mountains, and single cerros of less altitude, rising from the enclosed plateau to 17,000 feet in some instances. The last system is that of the numerous minor Cordilleras, which run south-eastward from the Cordillera Real into the lowlands of eastern Bolivia, of which the most important is that of Cochabamba, stretching out to E. long. The elevation of the snow line in the highlands of Bolivia appears to vary between 16,000 and 18,000 feet, modified in many cases by the aspect of the mountains and the nature of the country surrounding them, being raised where heat is powerfully reflected from the surface of the bare high plains, or lowered where the mountains are exposed to cold southerly winds. Volcanoes are frequent in the Andes and coast ranges; those of Sahama and Isluga, with Tua, Olca, and Ollagua farther south, are constantly smoking.

These mountain systems divide Bolivia into a high region, containing many very elevated plains stretching between the enclosing heights of the west, and a low land forming the eastern side of the country, beneath the mountains, and at a comparatively small elevation above the sea. The high plains or basins of the plateau enclose a continental water system, from which there is no outlet to the ocean, the rivers terminating in lakes, of which Lake Titicaca is the chief, or in swamps, or in vast dried up salt fields,—rapid evaporation disposing of and balancing the supply of water flowing to these by the mountain streams.

The valley or plateau which is occupied by the Lake of Titicaca and the Rio Desaguadero forms the most elevated table-land in the globe, with the exception of that of Thibet, which presents only mountain pastures, covered with sheep; while this table-land of the New World presents towns and populous cities, affords support to numerous herds of cattle, llamas, guanacos, and sheep, and is covered with harvests of maize, rye, barley, and wheat, at an elevation which has nothing to equal it in any other part of the world. The Lake of Titicaca or Chuquito, which occupies its northern extremity, is 12,600 feet above the level of the sea, and its extent is equal to fourteen times that of the Lake of Geneva, or 3220 square miles, the greatest depth being upwards of 700 feet. It is surrounded by numerous towns and villages, and a rich and fertile country, and contains several islands, the largest of which is called Titicaca, and was long held in great veneration by the Peruvian Indians, in consequence of its hav ing been the place whence Manco Capac and his consort Manco Oello Huaco, the great founders of the empire of the Incas, issued, to spread civilization, industry, and good government among the surrounding nations. The Lake of Titicaca is very irregular in its form. It admits of extensive navigation for small vessels, though not unattended with danger, as it is subject to sudden storms and violent gusts of wind from the neighbouring mountains. This lake communicates with the smaller Lake of Pansa, or of the "Pampa Aullagas," situated at the southern extremity of the valley, by means of the Rio Desaguadero, which flows out of the Lake of. Titicaca, and has a breadth of from 80 to 100 yards. This river and lake form part of the western boundaries between the Republics of Bolivia and Peru. Over the river was formed, in the time of the Incas, a suspension bridge, composed of cables and cords made of the grass and rushes which grow on its borders; and the work was constantly renewed from time to time, to obviate the effects of decay, as it constituted the only line of communication between the opposite sides of the valley. These lakes, with the Desaguadero, form the only receptacles for the water of those rivers and streams which descend from the surrounding mountains and enter this extensive plain, which has no visible outlet whereby its contents can escape otherwise than by evaporation.

Those rivers which take their rise from the western declivity of the Andes, and flow into the Pacific, are so inconsiderable in magnitude, and so short in their course, as scarcely to merit observation, and are only useful in supplying the means of a partial irrigation to the arid plains which separate these mountains from the Pacific. But those numerous rivers taking their origin on the eastern declivity of the Cordillera Real, which is the main water-parting of Bolivia, present a very different aspect, and are of much greater importance, since they communicate with large navigable rivers, which terminate in the Atlantic Ocean.

The River Paro or Beni, which takes its origin in the neighbourhood of the city of La Paz, and the Guapey, which rises near Cochabamba, and, sweeping round the southern and eastern bases of the Cordillera of Cochabamba, unites itself to the Mamore, flow to the north-east to mingle with the waters of the Madeira and the mighty Marañon or Amazons; while the Pilcomayo, which rises near Potosi and Chuquisaca, and the Vermejo, from the valley of Tarija, bend their courses, at a considerable distance from each other, to the south-east, until they join the Paraguay, which terminates in the Rio de la Plata. Possessing only a small extent of sea-board, and that in a perfect desert difficult of passage, and behind which the lofty range of the Andes forms a huge barrier, the whole of the rich provinces of eastern Bolivia are land-locked and almost isolated from communication with the outer world. The most natural outlets of the country appear to be in the