he fires which still
rage beneath their bases! Gigantic, however, as they seem to human
eyes, the most lofty could be represented on a globe six feet in
diameter by a grain of sand, less than one-twentieth of an inch in
thickness. How insignificant then must the proudest works of man
appear--what a mere speck himself--to One who looks down from on high on
this earth of ours!

On examining their sides in various parts, proof is afforded that these
vast mountains have been heaved upwards from beneath the ocean. Shells
are found 1300 feet above the sea, covered with marine mud. On a beach
elevated 2500 feet above the Pacific, numerous species of patella and
other shells can be picked up, identical with those obtained on the
coast with the living animal inhabiting them. At Huanuco, in Peru,
there is a coal-bed existing at the height of 14,700 feet. Shells have
also been found at the height of 13,000 feet; and on the side of
Chimborazo there is a salt spring 13,000 feet above the ocean.

The surface of the great lake of Titicaca--the largest piece of
fresh-water in South America--is 12,795 feet above the Pacific; an
elevation greater than that of the highest peaks of the Pyrenees. In
the neighbourhood of this lake, remains exist which speak of the
advanced state of civilisation of the inhabitants before the appearance
of the Incas, with whose latter history alone we are acquainted. So
completely is the lake surrounded by mountains, that, though fed by
numerous streams, not the smallest rivulet escapes to find its way
either into the Pacific or Atlantic. One large river, however, the
Desaguadero, flows out of its south-west corner, and disappears in the
swampy Lake Aullagas in the south of Bolivia. Its superabundant water
must, therefore, be taken off by evaporation, excessive in that elevated
region. High above it, amid chilling mists and biting storms of driving
snow, are found the silver-mines of Potosi and Pasco.

However, before we wander further amid the giddy precipices and
snow-capped summits of this mighty range of mountains, we will descend
for a time to the lower world, and glance round its southern extremity
and along its western shores, bathed by the waters of the
wide-stretching Pacific.

PART THREE, CHAPTER SIX.

SOUTHERN AND WESTERN SHORES OF THE CONTINENT.

Tierra Del Fuego appears as if a mountain region had been partly
submerged in the ocean, so that deep inlets and bays occupy the pla