Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The Swiss Alps Extend, In The Grisons And In The Tyrol, To
A Breadth Of 36 And 40 Leagues, Both
In the meridians of the lake at
Como, the canton of Appenzell, and in the meridian of Bassano and
Tegernsee.
) It is only in the knots of the mountains, that is where
the Cordillera is swelled by side-groups or divided into several
chains nearly parallel, and reuniting at intervals, for instance, on
the south of the lake of Titicaca, that it is more than 100 to 120
leagues broad, in a direction perpendicular to its axis. The Andes of
South America bound the plains of the Orinoco, the Amazon, and the Rio
de la Plata, on the west, like a rocky wall raised across a crevice
1300 leagues long, and stretching from south to north. This upheaved
part (if I may be permitted to use an expression founded on a
geological hypothesis) comprises a surface of 58,900 square leagues,
between the parallel of Cape Pilesar and the northern Choco. To form
an idea of the variety of rocks which this space may furnish for the
observation of the traveller, we must recollect that the Pyrenees,
according to the observations of M. Charpentier, occupy only 768
square sea leagues.
The name of Andes in the Quichua language (which wants the consonants
d, f, and g) Antis, or Ante, appears to me to be derived from the
Peruvian word anta, signifying copper or metal in general. Anta chacra
signifies mine of copper; antacuri, copper mixed with gold; and puca
anta, copper, or red metal. As the group of the Altai mountains* takes
its name from the Turkish word altor or altyn (* Klaproth. Asia
polyglotta page 211. It appears to me less probable that the tribe of
the Antis gave its name to the mountains of Peru.), in the same manner
the Cordilleras may have been termed "Copper-country," or Anti-suyu,
on account of the abundance of that metal, which the Peruvians
employed for their tools. The Inca Garcilasso, who was the son of a
Peruvian princess, and who wrote the history of his native country in
the first years of the conquest, gives no etymology of the name of the
Andes. He only opposes Anti-suyu, or the region of summits covered
with eternal snow (ritiseca), to the plains or Yuncas, that is, to the
lower region of Peru. The etymology of the name of the largest
mountain chain of the globe cannot be devoid of interest to the
mineralogic geographer.
The structure of the Cordillera of the Andes, that is, its division
into several chains nearly parallel, which are again joined by knots
of mountains, is very remarkable. On our maps this structure is
indicated but imperfectly; and what La Condamine and Bouguer merely
guessed, during their long visit to the table-land of Quito, has been
generalized and ill-interpreted by those who have described the whole
chain according to the type of the equatorial Andes. The following is
the most accurate information I could collect by my own researches and
an active correspondence of twenty years with the inhabitants of
Spanish America.
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