(;EULOGY AND NINERAL RESOURCES. Sections of the desert zone, exposed along the coast and valleys for several hundred feet, reveal nearly horizontal layers of calcareous sandstone above strata of pudding stone and shell marl, beneath which are beds of argillaceous shale, considerably tilted and often of immense thickness. ridges found on the coast plain are of granite or syenite. The Maritime and Central Cordilleras consist chiefly of crystalline and volcanic rocks on each side of which are sedimentary strata, prineipally of Jurassic age. The Eastern Cor dillera is in great part of Silurian formation, with taleose and clay slates. many quartz veins. and intrusions of granite rocks. The igneous cones of Peru are found in the southern section of the maritime and central ranges, about 1200 miles south of those in Ecuador. None of them has been in eruption in recent times. Sara-Sara, Achatayhua, Coro Puna, Ampato (all over 13.000 feet), Cha chani (19.y0 feet), and Mist ( about 20,000 feet) are quiescent and snow-clad. Misti, a magnificent cone, near whose base stands the city of Arequipa, appears to be the focus from which some of the earthquakes that afflict Peru have been propagated. South of Mistf is the elon gated crest of the volcano of Ornate, in the seven teenth century the most active of the Peruvian volcanoes. Farther south is Tutupaca (18,960 feet). which as late as 1S62 was still ejecting vapors by which a little sulphur was deposited. The frequent and severe earthquakes arc most destructive in the neighborhood of these southern volcanoes. In 1746 Callao and in 1868 Arequipa were destroyed by earthquakes. The shocks of 1877 were equally severe, and all the southern ports were overwhelmed by earthquake waves.
Peru is a vast storehouse of mineral wealth, though it long ago lost the first rank as a min ing country, and is now surpassed even by Bolivia and Chile. The Eastern Cordillera, contains gold in the quartz veins of the Silurian strata, but the annual yield is small because the richest mines occur in the most unhealthful and remote parts of the Montana, where miners dislike to go, and transportation is very difficult. The Cen tral and Maritime Cordilleras are poor in gold, but. rich in silver, which occurs nearly always with antimony, copper, and lead. Copper is found in greatest abundance in the coast lands, where also are important areas of salt, borax, and petroleum (in Miura). Anthracite and bitu minous coal are reported in the province of Ilualgayoe and are known to exist in the Hun machueo and other districts. But silver remains the chief mineral product. The greatest centre of the industry is at Cerro de Pasco, which pro duced $475,000,000 of silver between 1630 and 1849, and has yielded an average of about 1,200, 000 ounces a year for the past ten years, dropping, however, to 1,000,000 ounces in 1901, owing to the inundation of some of the chief mines, which will be drained by a tunnel. Other important silver-mining centres are those around Puma, and at CayBoma, Castrovireina, and Ilecuay. United States and British companies are largely interest ed in the mining industry, and the number of mines increased from 1456 in 1886 to 3475 in 1897. In 1900 there were 5178 mining claims, including silver, gold, copper, quicksilver, lead, zinc, coal, sulphur, salt. and petroleum. Many of these claims are unworked.