Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/63

Rh We may also entertain two provisional conclusions, one of them touching the great antiquity of the megalithic civilisation, and the other with reference to the area over which it prevailed.

But we must return to the most difficult part of the problem, namely, the climatic conditions. How could such a region as is described at the beginning of this essay, where corn cannot ripen, sustain the population of a great city over 12,000 ft. above the level of the sea? Could the elevation have been less? Is such an idea beyond the bounds of possibility? The height is now 12,500 ft. above the sea level, in latitude 16° 22′ S.

The recent studies of southern geology and botany lead to the belief in a connection between South America and the Antarctic continental lands. But at a remote geological period there was no South America, only three land masses, separated by great sea inlets, a Guiana, a Brazil, and a La Plata island. There were no Andes. Then came the time when the mountains began to be upheaved. The process appears to have been very slow, gradual, and long continued. The Andes did not exist at all in the Jurassic, or even in the cretaceous period. Comparatively speaking, the Andes are very modern. The bones of a mastodon have been discovered at Ulloma, in