Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/45

Rh highest points of each of them are covered by a snow as ancient as the world; and their volcanoes, which vomit forth a perpetual fire in the region of frost and cold, present a terrific spectacle to the contemplative philosopher.

If the worth of countries were to be estimated by the greater or less extension they afford to population and to agriculture, the Royal Cordillera would diminish the value of Peru, since its eminences and declivities, far from augmenting the proportion of cultivable land which would be found at the bases of this chain of mountains, diminish them extremely ; but, in