The Cordillera and the Andes--Signification of the terms--Altitude of the Mountains and Passes--Lakes--Metals--Aspect of the Cordillera--Shattered Rocks--Maladies caused by the diminished Atmospheric Pressure--The Veta and the Surumpe--Mountain Storms--The Condor--Its habits--Indian mode of Catching the Bird--The Puna or Despoblado--Climate--Currents of Warm Air--Vegetation--Tuberous Plant called the Maca--Animals of the Puna--The Llama, the Alpaco, the Huanacu and the Vicuña--The Chacu and the Bolas--Household Utensils of the Ancient Peruvians--The Viscacha and the Chinchilla--Puna Birds and Amphibia--Cattle and Pasture--Indian Farms--Shepherds' Huts--Ancient Peruvian Roads and Buildings--Treasure concealed by the Indians in the Puna.
Two great mountain chains, running parallel with each other, intersect Peru in the direction from S.S.W. to N.N.E. The chain nearest the coast of the Pacific is at the average distance of from sixty to seventy English miles from the sea. The other chain takes a parallel direction but describes throughout its whole course a slight curve eastward. These two ranges of mountain are called the Cordilleras, or the Andes: both terms being used indiscriminately. Even the creoles of Peru confound these two terms, sometimes calling the western chain by one name, and sometimes by the other. Nevertheless, a strict distinction ought to be observed:--the western chain should properly be called the Cordillera, and the eastern chain the Andes. The latter name is derived from the Quichua word Antasuyu; _Anta_ signifying metal generally, but especially copper, and _Suyu_ a district; the meaning of Antasuyu, therefore, is the metal district. In common parlance, the word Suyu was dropped, and the termination _a_ in _Anta_ was converted into _is_. Hence the word _Antis_, which is employed by all old writers and geographers; and even now is in common use among the Indian population of Southern Peru. The Spaniards, according to their practice of corrupting the words of the Quichua language, have transformed Antis into _Andes_, and they apply the name without distinction to the western and the eastern chain of mountains.[65]
The old inhabitants of Peru dwelt chiefly along the base of the eastern mountain chain, where they drew from the mines the metal which afforded material for their tasteful and ingenious workmanship: those mountains consequently retained the name of Antis or Andes. In the time of the Incas, both chains were called Ritisuyu (Snow-Districts). The Spaniards, on the invasion of the country, advancing from the sea-coast, first arrived at the western mountains, and to them they gave the name of _Cordillera_, the term commonly employed in the Spanish language, to designate any mountain chain. Most of the earlier travellers and topographists named the western chain the _Cordillera de los Andes_, and regarded it as the principal chain, of which they considered the eastern mountains to be merely a branch. To the eastern range of mountains they gave the name of _Cordillera Oriental_. I will here strictly observe the correct denominations, calling the western chain the Cordillera, or the coast mountains; and the eastern chain the Andes, or the inner Cordillera.