TOPOGRAPHY. Extending north and south through Peru are three well-marked topographic . divisions: the Coast Desert, the region of the Andes, and the Montana or tropical forested • plain east of the Cordilleras, and included in the basin of the Amazon. The Zona scca or dry zone ' extends along the Pacific coast from 3° S. lati tude (Southern Ecuador) through Peru to 22° S. latitude in Northern Chile. Most of this sandy desert is only 20 miles in width, but in the north it is 120 miles wide. It gradually rises from the Pacific to nearly 1000 feet, where it merges with the foothills of the Andes. it is nearly as destitute of vegetation as the African Sahara. except that it is crossed at intervals by rivers, some of them among the snow tops of the Central Andes. The banks and valleys of these roughly parallel streams are covered with perpetual vegetation, ribbons of green among the desert waste. Here are many estates and plan tations. The desert is whitish 'in color, owing to the large admixture of marine shells. On the sea margin steep cliffs generally rise, and the waste behind them is slightly undulating, with ridges of considerable height rising here and there. The surface is hard, excepting near the coast, where drifting sea sands are whirled aloft by the winds in clouds of dust. The coast is fair ly supplied with harbors well sheltered from the sea; but at many small ports the ships of the coasting trade roll uncomfortably in open road steads. The bays of Payta, Sechura, Chimbote, Calino, Samanco, and Norato are secure, land locked havens, where the largest vessels may find shelter.
The region of the Andes is about 250 miles in width. It contains enormous chains of moun tains, between which are elevated plains and tablelands, warm and fertile ravines and valleys. The mountain system consists of three Cordilleras extending from northwest to southeast, more or less parallel with the line of the coast. The two western chains, for long dis tances comparatively near each other, are iden tical in origin and have been separated by denu dations in the course of many ages. On these
maritime and central Cordilleras are the vol canoes and many thermal springs. Some peaks of the maritime range rise to a height of 15,000 feet. The Sierra, a name that is not applied to any particular cordillera in Peru, designates the region between the maritime and central ranges. rising from 4000 feet, where it abuts on the western, to 10,000 feet at the central mountains. This region. from 50 to 150 miles wide, is a high, broken plain, corresponding to the temperate zone of Mexico, and is best adapted for settlement by whites of the temper ate zones. The central range. with culminating peaks 19,000 feet above the sea, is for the most part a distinct water-parting between the Atlan tic and Pacific drainage systems, though a few Pacific streams rise to the east of this line of summits. Between the central range and the Eastern Cordillera is the Puna (signifying hard breathing), a broken plain rising from 9000 feet at its western edge to 14.000 feet at the edge of the great Eastern Cordillera of the Andes, where several of the grandest mountains of the conti nent are found, some of them overlooking the northern plain of Bolivia, rising 20,000 feet. On the Puna rise a number of the great southern headwaters of the Amazon. The Peruvian Andes increase in height from north to south and from west to east.
The eastern part of Peru drops steeply from the cordilleras to the plain of the Upper Amazon, called the Montana, 800 miles in length, covered with subtropical forests, where it joins the moun tains, and with dense tropical vegetation on the plain, which is cut by the eastern frontier. The Montana is very rich in rubber and agricultural resources, with abundant navigation. and prom ises to be one of the most prosperous parts of Peru, though it has yet reached only the earl• stages of development.