Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/348

 334: PERU pletes the boundary southward ; S. by Bolivia, from which it is separated by the Rio Loa ; and W. by the Pacific. The boundary with Brazil is now generally regarded as marked by the Rio Javary, but the jurisdiction of the Peruvian colonial government extended east- ward to the banks of the Teffe. The area is now roundly computed at 500,000 sq. m. The territorial division comprises 17 departments (subdivided into provinces, and these into dis- tricts) and two littoral provinces, which, with their estimated populations and their capitals, were officially stated in 1873 as follows : DEPARTMENTS. Population. Capitals. Piura 153,000 Piura. Amazonas 69,000 65,000 Chachapoyas. Moyobamba. Libertad 219,000 Trujillo. Cajamarca 198,000 Cajamarca. Ancachs. . -. 295,000 Huaraz. Lima 400,000 Lima. Huanuco. 195,000 Huanuco. Junin 188,000 Cerro de Pasco. lea 130,000 lea. Huancavelica 142,000 Huancavelica. Ayacucho 280,000 Ayacucho. Apurimac 165,000 Abancay. Cuzco 300 000 Cuzco. Puno 273,000 Puno. Arequipa 200,000 Arequipa. Moqueo'ua 90000 Tacna Tal-apack'.:} littoral P rovillces 35,000 70,000 Callao. Tarapaca. Total 3,417,000

Another official document, published in 1871, gave the population at 3,199,000 ; but the most carefully prepared statistical works represent it as not exceeding 2,500,000, made up approxi- mately as follows : Indians, 57 per cent. ; hy- brids (cholos, zambos, &c.), 23 per cent. ; whites born in the republic, 12 per cent. ; negroes, 3 per cent. ; Chinese, If per cent ; and other for- eigners, 2J per cent. The capital is Lima, with a population in 1868 of 121,362. Other towns of note are Callao, Cuzco (the ancient capital of the empire of the incas), Arequipa, lea, Mo- quegua, Tacna, Iquique, Ayacucho or Huainan- ga, Cerro de Pasco, Huanuco, Huaraz, Cajamar- ca, Trujillo, Chiclayo, Lambayeque, Moyobam- ba, and Piura. The coast, forming an irregular N". and N. W. line, is notched with numerous in- lets, but there are no deep indentations save the large bay of Sechura, fronting the desert of the same name between the 5th and 6th parallels, and the bay of Pisco and Independence bay, between lat. 13 and 15. The two last are formed by two rocky promontories jutting obliquely N". W. and S. E. into the sea, called Punta Huacas and Carretas head ; these, with Points Aguja, Payta, Parina, and Blanco, all in Piura, Salinas in Lima, and Coles in Moquegua, are the most remarkable headlands on the Pe- ruvian seaboard. The principal ports are Pay- ta, at the head of a beautiful bay in the depart- ment of Piura, with the best anchorage on the coast, and considered the oldest port in Peru ; Eten and Salaverry, in Libertad; Callao, the port of Lima, the bay of which is formed and shielded by the barren island of San Lorenzo ; Pisco, in the department of lea ; Islay, in Are- quipa, and formerly the port for Arequipa city, but lately superseded in this respect by Mo- llendo, a few miles S., which is much frequented by ships since the opening of the railway to Arequipa ; Arica, in Moquegua, through which is carried on most of the foreign trade of Bo- livia by the Pacific ; and Pisagua and Iquique, in the province of Tarapaca. The remainder of the 34 ports are unimportant, and with them all Peru has not a single harbor, but open road- steads, in many of which, as at Mollendo, the water is at times so rough as to prevent com- munication between ships and shore for several days. Indeed, along the whole coast, the swell rolling in from the Pacific breaks in a heavy surf, which renders landing in most places dan- gerous, and often impossible even for boats. In exposed positions rafts called balsas are used for landing or embarking goods or pas- sengers. In some of the more important ports, however, as at Callao, landing has of late been considerably facilitated by the construction of iron moles. Since the introduction of steam navigation almost all the towns on the banks of the Marafion, Huallaga, and Ucayali are stations for the river steamers; and Puno is among the principal ports of the great Alpine lake Titicaca. The shore, especially in the north, is in general bold with deep water close to land ; as much as 70 to 80 fathoms are i-e- ported in some parts within a short distance of the cliffs. Islands are far less numerous and usually smaller on the Peruvian than on any other coast washed by the south Pacific. The most important are the Chinchas (see CHINCHA ISLANDS), at the entrance to the bay of Pisco ; the Guanape, Macabi, and Lobos groups, between lat. 6 and 9; and the Pa- jaros islets off the southern shores of Tarapaca ; all of which are remarkable for their extensive guano deposits. The island of San Lorenzo is the largest, and attains here and there an ele- vation of 1,000 ft. The country is traversed by the Andes in two separate ranges, the Cor- dillera Oriental or Andes proper, and the Cor- dillera Occidental or coast ridge ; to which is added a third and still more easterly chain, N". of the parallel of Pasco, about 11. The coast ridge enters the republic from the south, and, running almost parallel to the shore, at a dis- tance of from 45 to 65 m., unites with the Cordillera Oriental in the nudo or mountain knot of Vilcanota, between lat. 14 and 15, the northern limit of the great inter-alpine plain containing Lake Titicaca, a comparatively small portion of which belongs to Peru. This knot, near the eastern extremity of which stands the imperial city of Cuzco, comprehends the mountains of Vilcanota (15,525 ft. above the sea), Carabaya, Abancay, Huando, and An- dahuaylas. Almost the minutest inflections of the coast correspond to like inflections in the Cordillera Occidental. The table land of Cuzco, comprising an area of about 15,000 sq. m., on