Productions.—The trees and plants which are objects of cultivation have been already enumerated. The vast forests of the mountain region and the eastern country supply several articles for commerce and for domestic use, such as vanilla, sarsaparilla, eopaiva, caout ehoue, and several kinds of resins and gum ; also various barks cud woods, used as dyes such as Brazil-wood, log-wood, mahogany-bark, and arnotto; and the medicinal or Peruvian bark (Cinchona). The indigo plant grows spontaneously. There are various kinds of lofty trees, usefnl as timber or for cabinet-work, as mahogany and cedar.
Domestic animals are far from being abundant in Los Valles, on account of the want of pasture. There is a good supply of horses, and still better of mules, which are used for the transport of merchan dise. On the elevated table-land of Pasco, and in other mining districts, llamas are kept for that purpose. A llama carries about 130 lbs., or half the load of a mule. Alpacos are bred for their wool. Cattle are abundant in the mountain region, where the declivities supply extensive pasture-grounds ; and in the colder places sheep abound. The wool of the sheep, llama, and alpaca now forma an important article of export.
Nearly all the wild animals peculiar to South America are found in Peru, as the jaguar, the puma, the ounce, the tapir, the spectacled bear, several species' of monkeys, sloths, armadilloes, wild boars, ant eaters, guanacoes, and vicunas. Von Tschudi found twenty-six species of Mamma/la in the coast region. The condor inhabits the most ele vated parts of the Andes. Falcons, hawks, and owls abound. Parrots, parroquets, and macaws are numerous in the woods ou the mountains. Whales and seals abound along the coast. Fish are plentiful iu the large rivers of the eastern region, where they constitute the principal food of the inhabitants, together with the manatee and turtles. The manatee occurs only in the Ucayali and the lower part of the Huallaga. The oil extracted from the eggs of the turtle is an article of export under the name of manteea. Alligators are numerous in these rivers, and they are often thirty feet long.
Peru is noted fur its wealth in silver and gold. The number of mines which have been worked is above a thousand ; many of them are exhausted or abandoned, but many of them are still worked ; and some, as those of Pasco, are very rich. Of late years mining in Pera has received a great impetus from the introduction of foreign capital, and the annual produce of the mines has been largely increased. There
are quicksilver-mines near Iltiancavelica. Copper, iron, lead, and brim stone are found in several places. Saltpetre is found in the country adjacent to the Pacific, south of Arequipa, and great quantities of it are exported by English vessels. Salt is collected on the coast north of Callao, at Point Salinas, and in Seehura Bay, where there are salines, or salt-ponds. Of late years a very important source of revenue has been the guano, which is obtained in vast quantities on the islands and rocky headlands of the coasts Of 235,111 tons of guano imported into England in 1854, no less than 221,747 tons came from Peru.
Inhabitants.—The population is composed of creole s, or descendants of Europeans, Peruvian Indians, negroes, and a mixed race. The greater part of the eastern region is in possession of independent tribes, and ooly those natives who inhabit the vale of the Huallaga have been converted and subjected to the government of the whites. The number of creoles is estimated at about 200,000, and that of the Peruvian Indians at more than 800,000; the remainder are a mined race, the offspring of Europeans and Indian women, with about 40,000 free negroes and slaves.
The Peruvian Indians inhabit the Valles and the Montana, to the exclusion of all other native tribes. They speak the Quichua language, which is generally called the langungs of the Incas, and which is used by all the natives of South America, from Quito near the equator, to Tucuman in La I'late, 27° S. lat. That the Peruvian Indians had attained a considerable degree of civilisation at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards is proved by the numerous ruins of extensive buildings • the remains of the great artificial road which leads through the Montt:ha from Quito to Cuzco, and thence southward over the valley of the Desaguadcro ; and morn particularly by the fact that they irrigated the low tracts in the vales by making cuts to convey the water from the small rivers over the fields, and by the judicious manner in which the water was distributed. They have since acquired iron implement.' and domestic animals to Assist them iu their agri cultural labour, but they have not been benefited in any other respect. These Indians apply themselves particularly to agriculture, and there are numerous villages, and even small towns, the whole population of which now consists of Peruvians. They also work in the mines, manufacture different kinds of woollen and mitten cloth, and show r.