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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A Part Of The Immense Herbal
Of This Botanist Is Now At Prague.)
The principal Cordillera of Chile and Upper Peru is, for the first
time, ramified very distinctly into two branches, in the group of
Porco and Potosi, between latitude 19 and 20 degrees.
These two
branches comprehend the table-land extending from Carangas to Lamba
(latitude 19 3/4 to 15 degrees) and in which is situated the small
mountain lake of Paria, the Desaguadero, and the great Laguna of
Titicaca or Chucuito, of which the western part bears the name of
Vinamarca. To afford an idea of the colossal dimensions of the Andes,
I may here observe that the surface of the lake of Titicaca alone (448
square sea leagues) is twenty times greater than that of the Lake of
Geneva, and twice the average extent of a department of France. On the
banks of this lake, near Tiahuanacu, and in the high plains of Callao,
ruins are found which bear evidence of a state of civilization
anterior to that which the Peruvians assign to the reign of the Inca
Manco Capac. The eastern Cordillera, that of La Paz, Palca, Ancuma,
and Pelechuco, join, north-west of Apolobamba, the western Cordillera,
which is the most extensive of the whole chain of the Andes, between
the parallels 14 and 15 degrees. The imperial city of Cuzco is
situated near the eastern extremity of this knot, which comprehends,
in an area of 3000 square leagues, the mountains of Vilcanota,
Carabaya, Abancai, Huando, Parinacochas, and Andahuaylas. Though here,
as in general, in every considerable widening of the Cordillera, the
grouped summits do not follow the principal axis in uniform and
parallel directions, a phenomenon observable in the general
disposition of the chain of the Andes, from latitude 18 degrees, is
well worthy the attention of geologists. The whole mass of the
Cordilleras of Chile and Upper Peru, from the Straits of Magellan to
the parallel of the port of Arica (18 degrees 28 minutes 35 seconds),
runs from south to north, in the direction of a meridian at most 5
degrees north-east; but from the parallel of Arica, the coast and the
two Cordilleras east and west of the Alpine lake of Titicaca, abruptly
change their direction and incline to north-west. The Cordilleras of
Ancuma and Moquehua, and the longitudinal valley, or rather the basin
of Titicaca, which they inclose, take a direction north 42 degrees
west. Further on, the two branches again unite in the group of the
mountains of Cuzco, and thence their direction is north 80 degrees
west. This group of which the table-land inclines to the north-east,
forms a curve, nearly from east to west, so that the part of the Andes
north of Castrovireyna is thrown back more than 242,000 toises
westward. This singular geological phenomenon resembles the variation
of dip of the veins, and especially of the two parts of the chain of
the Pyrenees, parallel to each other, and linked by an almost
rectangular elbow, 16,000 toises long, near the source of the
Garonne;* (* Between the mountain of Tentenade and the Port d'Espot.);
but in the Andes, the axes of the chain, south and north of the curve,
do not preserve parallelism.
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