Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/111

Rh earth has lost its internal cold by the efforts of husbandry, the furrows made by the plough having enabled the rays of the sun to penetrate the soil to a considerable depth; and having been meliorated by the salts of the decayed leaves and plants, the accumulation of which, during a long series of years, has furnished a natural compost, many vegetable productions have shot up, so as to have attained an extraordinary, and even formidable growth, similar to that which has been observed in every mountainous territory subjected to like circumstances. But as industry and labour cannot vary the local situation of countries, that of Peru will be an eternal impediment to the prosperity of agriculture, and to the support and cultivation of its productions.

The great Cordillera which traverses all South America, forms in Peru another smaller one, denominated the Cordillera of the coast, distant from the former from twenty to twenty-five leagues. From the waters it collects, proceed the rivers that empty themselves, by a sudden declination, and with a current of proportionate impetuosity, in the South Sea, in the proximity of which the territory named Valles is situated. It is fertilized as far as it has been practicable to intersect it by canals leading from the rivers.

Deserts of twenty, thirty, and forty leagues in extent, together with arid and sandy plains, separate the vallies from each other, from the port of Atacama to Guayaquil. The rivers are incapable of supplying them with the means of irrigation; and it is impossible to expect this benefit from the waters of heaven, which being cooled by the perpetual snows that cover the summits of the mountains, and heated at the same time by the torrid zone, and their proximity to the equator,