The Montana, forming two-thirds of the entire area of the country, stretches away for hundreds of leagues eastward from the Andes to the confines of Brazil. On the n., it is bounded by the Amazon, on the s. by Bolivia. It consists of vast impenetrable for ests and alluvial plains, is rich in all the productions of tropical latitudes, is of inex haustible fertility, and teems with animal and vegetable life. It is still, however, almost wholly unproductive to man. The silence of its central forests has never been disturbed Iry the civilized explorer, and its only human inhabitants are a few scattered tribes of Indians. The Montafla is watered by numberless streams, and ,by a large number of Important rivers. It belongs wholly to the basin of the Amazon. Along the head-waters of the Punts, which, flowing through beautiful forest-covered plains, approaches to within 60 in. of Cuzco, there were at one time .numerous Spanish farms, where great tracts of forests had been cleared, and where crops of coco, cocoa, sugar, and other trop ical productions were regularly raised. These farms have since 18d1 been abandoned, and the encroaching forest has already obliterated their sites. The upper waters of the Purrs are the head-quarters of a savage and barbarously cruel tribe of wild Indians called Chunehos. These untamable savages have shown the greatest hostility to the advance of civilization. They murdered the settlers, or drove them to take refuge iu some less advanced settlement. When Mr. :Markham visited this region in 1553, a few farms still existed: from a paper, however, which he communicates to the Journal of the Royal Geographical Soeirty, and which is dated 1861, it would appear that the Cimnehos have finished their barbarous work, for the settlers have either all been massacred or driven back from the forest, so that now not a single settlement remains. The rich valleys of Paticartambo, once covered with flourishing Spanish farms, have again become•one vast tropical forest. The virgin soil of the Montana is of amazing fertility; while its climate, though not oppressively hot, is healthy. The forests consist of huge trees, of which some are remarkable for the beauty of their wood, others for their valuable gums and resins, and others as timber trees. A rank underaTowth of vegetation covers the coun try, and the trees are often chained together and festooned with parasites and closely matted creepers. In this region, for the most part undisturbed by the voice of man, civilized or savage, animal life flourishes in endless variety, and birds of the brighest plumage flit among the foliage. products which are yielded here in spon taneous abundance, are the inestimable bark, (see CINCHONA), India-rubber, gum-copal, vanilla, indigo, copaiba, balsam, cinnamon, sarsaparilla, ipecaenanha, table wax, etc. 011 the western fringe of the Montana, where there are still a few settlements, tobacco, sugar, coffee, cotton, and chocolate, are cultivated with complete success.
Hydrog•apley.—The hydrography of Peru may be said to be divided into three sys tems—those of lake Titicaca, the Pacific, and the Amazon. The streams that flow into lake Titicaca are few and inconsiderable. The rivers which, having their sources in the western Cordillera, flow w. into the Pacific, are about 60 in number; but many of them are dry in summer, and even the more important arc rapid and shallow, have a short course, are not navigable even for canoes, and are mainly used for the purpose of irri gation. All the great rivers of Peru are tributaries of the Amazon. The Maranon, rising between the eastern and western Cordilleras, and flowing tortuously to the n.n.w., is generally considered to be the head-water of the Amazon (q.v.). The Huallaga rises near the town of lluanuco, and flows northward to the Amazon. It is navigable for 000 in., the head of its (for canoes) being at Tingo Maria, within 100 in. of its source. The Yoe:trill, or Ucayali, an immense river, enters the Amazon 210 m. below the Hual
laga. Its tributaries and upper waters, among which are the Pampas and the Apurimac, drain the greater portion of the Peruvian Sierra. The Punts, which reaches to the val leys of Paueartambo, within 60 in. of Cuzco, has recently been explored. We know several of its sources, and that it enters the Amazon by four mouths, a little above Barra. It flows through What is perhaps the richest and most beautiful region of Peru. Many attempts have been made to explore this river, but none were successful till Mr. Chandless (1865-66) explored it and its tributary, the Aguirey. Sailing down the Rio Negro, from Manoag to the Amazon, he reached the mouth of the Purus, and ascended it a distance of 1866 miles. He found that it flowed in a tortuous course through a rich alluvial plain, and that the few Indians on its upper course were still as primitive as is indicated by the use of only stone hatchets. Ile ascertained that the Rio Madre de Dios is not the head-water of the Purus. Ile then ascended the Aguirey, the principal affluent of the Punts, in the hope that it might afford communication with that south Peruvian river, but failed, owing to difficulties insuperable by him, to settle the question.
Productions, Reports and imports, Revenue, wealth and resources of Peru consist, not in manufactures, but entirely in mineral, vegetable, and animal products. As no statistics are taken in the country, it is impossible to give the quantity and value of the productions, and of the exports and imports, even approximately. Of the precious metals, the production has greatly fallen off since Peru became an independent state; and this country, which once stood in the same relation to Spain that Australia does to Great Britain, now contributes little to the metallic wealth of the world. The immense stores of gold and silver found here by the Spanish invaders represented the aceummula tinn of centuries, and that among a people who used the precious metals only for the purposes of ornamentation. Nevertheless, Peril possesses vast metallic riches. The Andes abound in mines of gold, silver, copper, lead, bismuth, etc.; and in the Montana, gold is said to exist in abundance in veins and in pools on the margins of rivers. The public revenue of Peru is derived mainly from the sale of guano, and only to a small extent from customs. The total annual exports of Peru are valued at about £7,500,000; and Peru imports yearly about £1,000,000 worth of British goods. The actual revenue in 1875 was £6,203,320; the expenditure was L5,789,100. Peru has a considerable public debt, divided into internal and external: the former, exclusive of a floating debt of unknown amount, is estimated at S.',:?,.500,000; the latter made up of sundry loans amount ing to £49.010,000. The metric system of weights and measures was established by law in 1800, but has not yet come into general use. Besides the precious metals, Peru pos sesses other most important mineral resources. In addition to the guano, to which allu sion has already been made, another important article of national wealth is nitrate of soda, which is found in immense quantities in the province of Tarapaca. This substance, which is a powerful fertilizer (see NITRE), is calculated to cover, in this province alone, an area of 50 square leagues, and the quantity has been estimated at 63,000,00t tons. Here also great quantities of borax are found. The working of this valuable substance, i however, is interdicted by government, which has made is monopoly of it, as it has of the guano but such small parcels of it as have been exported bring about £30 per ton in the English market. In 1876 there were in Peru 608 m. of railway completed, and several hundreds in course of construction, including a lino across the summit of the Cor dillera de los Andes, and presenting engineering difficulties even more extraordinary than those overcome in the )font Cenis tunnel.