An Immense Alpine Lake Characterizes The Basin Of Tiahuanaco Or Titicaca; This Phenomenon Is The More Worthy Of Attention, As

In South America there are scarcely any of those reservoirs of fresh water which are found at the foot of

The European Alps, on the northern and southern slopes, and which are permanent during the season of drought. The other basins of the Andes, for instance, those of Jauja, the Upper Maranon and Cauca, pour their waters into natural canals, which may be considered as so many crevices situated either at one of the extremities of the basin, or on its banks, nearly in the middle of the lateral chain. I dwell on this articulated form of the Andes, on those knots or transverse ridges, because, in the continuation of the Andes called the Cordilleras of the shore of Venezuela, we shall find the same transverse dykes, and the same phenomena.

The ramification of the Andes and of all the great masses of mountains into several chains merits particular consideration in reference to the height more or less considerable of the bottom of the enclosed basins, or longitudinal valleys. Geologists have hitherto directed more attention to the successive narrowing of these basins, their depth compared with the walls of rock that surround them, and the correspondence between the re-entering and the salient angles, than to the level of the bottom of the valleys. No precise measure has yet fixed the absolute height of the three basins of Titicaca, Jauja and the Upper Maranon;* (* I am inclined to believe that the southern part of the basin of the Upper Maranon, between Huary and Huacarachuco, exceeds 350 toises.) but I was fortunate enough to be able to determine the six other basins, or longitudinal valleys, which succeed each other, as if by steps, towards the north.

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