AmazonProvince,s of Peru. By H. Guillaume, F.R.G.S. (Wyman and Sons.)—Three
gigantic ranges of mountains separate the sea- coast towns of Peru from the Montana, that magnificent country which, starting from the slopes of the Eastern Cordilleras, stretches towards the mouths of the Amazon, and is covered for the most part with a forest, which in tropical growth and scenery surpasses all others. The domains of Peru stretch for a thousand miles along both banks of the great river, and the splendid forests which line the banks contain—besides that most priceless of barks, the " chinchona bark," truly called by the Indians " quina-quina," i.e., "bark of barks "—the india-rubber tree, cacao, coca, besides other drugs of known and unknown value, and equally valuable woods and dyes ; while the open plains can grow the sugar-cane, rice, coffee, cotton, and tobacco in abundance, and the more temperate regions can produce most of the vegetables of the temperate zone. All this fertility arises from the numerous affluents of the Upper Amazon, that greatest of waterways which Don Benito Arana found to be navigable to Mayro, a village 3,623 miles from the Atlantic, and distant 325 miles from Lima. The problem of con- necting the Pacific Coast with the Montana has only, however, been partly solved by the wonderful Oroya and Arequipa railroads, which just touch some of the mining districts. The mineral wealth of Peru is enough, many will say, to pay for any railway. It is, indeed, without compare. The last of the Incas, Atahualpa, surrendered to Pizarro three and a half millions in gold, and the records of Madrid showed the amount received from the silver districts of Cerro de Pasco, Hualgayoc, and Huantajaya up to 1803 to be £169,889,100. These famous mines are still unexhausted, yet the two latter are deserted, and even the celebrated Cerro de Pasco is now hardly worked at all. The wealth of ore passes all belief, yet it is the sober truth that the Andes are threaded through and through with veins which would pay many national debts. The mines at present worked are those of Huamachuco, of the provinces of Carabaya and Sandia, and in Loreto generally. Numerous rivers, as the Napo and others, constitute a certain source of gold, even though it may be not a rich one. Altogether, M. Guillaume has given a dazzling picture of Peruvian wealth, agricultural and mineral, supplemented by useful maps, illustra- tions, and figures. The regions which appear most suited to European emigrants are Chauchamayo, Cahuapanas, and Chacha- poyas. A word of warning as to their quinine-trees to the Peruvian Government would not be out of place. Ecuador has destroyed Chinchona Calisaya, and nearly consumed her C. Succirubra ; Bolivia and Peru should protect as much as possible their respective C. Calisaya and C. Condaminea, before it is too late.
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