Show di I 1 phi 0 I 1 D 5 r ap 10 I 1 I 1 A M 4 ft c I 1 at k I 1 k V V A R PR g rg fa 0 O herd of llamas in peru prepared by the national geographic society So clety washington D C peru M which has been celebrating the hundredth hundred Eli anniversary of its independence from spain in the presence of officially representing the united states and other nations Is far enough out of tile lie beaten path of most north americans to be but vaguely known to them it Is often thought of no doubt as a little republic ell clinging nging to the sides of the lofty andes lest it slip and be lost in the pacific but in area and interest peru is by no means negligible li and if it lias has failed to take an important place in world affairs either commercial or political it may well be that that fact Is due not to lack of size and resources and potential wealth and power but rather to i immaturity peru has every climate under tinder heaven together with many of the products and conditions that go them it lias has the sand duries dunes of the sahara the fertile sun bathed irrigated valleys of california the dry grazing lands of australia the productive mountain valleys and uplands of kashmir the bleak 11 plateaus of 0 tibet the snowy peaks of switzerland and the tropical jungles of contral central africa and brazil and oft off its shores tropical in latitude but wild mild in temperature the waters so cold that often they are uncomfortable for linah ill ing are alive with the sea life of tile the near benr antarctic much of peru Is occupied by the towering andes with few passes less than feet high and with numerous peaks exceeding feet these great ramparts are chiefly responsible spon sIbIe for the diversity or of perus climatic conditions they precipitate the moisture of the atlantic winds and so create the tropical jungles that stretch from their bases toward the interior of the continent thrust slopes and plateaus up into the cool re regions ions of the upper air and cut off the pacific a coast section from the lie moisture laden winds making much of it a desert coast strip has rivers but no rain although the strip of peru beti between een the pacific and the western foothills of the andes is devoid of rain and largely desert many streams from the mountains break across this region to the sea and the relatively narrow valleys irrigated from their waters constitute the most fertile land of the country most of the desert de ert land between the parallel rivers Is not so from lack of fertility but because of the absence of life giving water this is a most unusual region lying within the tropics and adjoining the sea where normally vegetable growth would be abundant if it could he be viewed from a distance of a thousand miles through a telescope it would probably appear much as aa the supposed canals of mars have been described as appearing to 10 some observers dark roughly parallel lines of vegetation on a drab endure less background some of the bench lands have been reclaimed for considerable distances from the rivers and projects have boen considered to impound the waters that tha t rush down from the melting andean snows and bring under cultivation practically the whole coast region peru has an area of about miles and is therefore only slightly smaller than mexico and well 0 ver over a quarter the size of the united states exclusive of alaska if peru could be laid down on the surface of the united states so that its southernmost i point coln coincided elded etli tile southernmost out projection of texas its foith eastern castern corner would lie near peora ill III and Us its northwestern near bear cheyenne wyo the rough trl triangle would cover practically ily till or of texas oklahoma and kansas kanbas half ot of nebraska parts of illinois colorado iowa and south dakota Da kolii end and fragments of new kew mexico and wy 1 is V ore ere the incas flourished 3 a LS the united states was settled arom the atlantic coast and developed first its coastal strip leaving ns as an unknown region for generations the country to the west beyond its mountains and des deserts arts so peru has developed in the deveise direction the E ur conquerors of its luca inca empire entered the country from the pa eifle coast and it Is along this strip of coast land that european blood find and culture have hare made themselves most strongly felt to tile east rise the three towering ranges of tb the e andes liehr slopes peaks and intervening valleys and plateaus constituting the sierra the second of the throe three great geographic divisions of peru in tills this lofty loft y region g tile inca civilization hold sway with a marvelously Int intricate but effic efficient lerit governmental goi ern mental machine Inae lillie before the Sp spanish came cuzco the capital of tile the inca empire was situated in a fer me protected valley of the sierra region and remains today one of the important peruvian towny its population now nov however Is only about one tenth that of the elty when it was tile the babylon of the western hemisphere in tile the almost inaccessible country to tile the northwest of cuzco and less than 50 miles distant hidden away among the mountains was machu the secret city where the forerunners of tile the incas almost destroyed by barbarians ba rians nursed their civilization and culture for centuries before going out into valleys anil and founding their great empire this old city whose existence had been only a tradition for hundreds of years was discovered in 1911 and uncovered in 1012 by expeditions ions of the national geographic gaoat aphia society an and yale university the sierra or region of mountains valleys and plateaus Is still the land of the heirs of the incas in this portion of peru lives the largest single element in tile the population the civilized indians descendants of the incas though tile the population of peru is not known accurately it Is estimated to be about tile the indians of the sierra number close to immense mineral resources in the PeruN peruvian lan sierra too are the mining developments perus mineral re resources fire are almost inexhaustible gold god and silver are the minerals on which most emphasis was ins placed by the spaniards fortunes in both were removed from the country but rich deposits remain in recent years copper lias has led other minerals rals in the value of production the copper mines at cerre de pasco are among the richest in the world almost every mineral substance known Is believed to have been compounded in natures great andean laboratory the list of products from peruvian mines covers much of tile lie alphabet from antimony to vanadium of great Import importance allee fire are the petroleum wells of the northern northera coast whose production Is next la in value to the count rys copper output to the alie east of the andes cut oft off from the alie more developed portion of t the country lies the third geographies geographical division the region known as the perus land of the th future this part of tile the republic Is made up of the wooded landward slopes of the andes grassy foothills and the heavy little known jungles and forests foresta that spread out to the east for a thousand miles or more along the broad valley of hie file amazon find and its tributaries tributa ries because of the heavy rainfall the growth or of vegetation ege tation in tills this part of peru Is 18 believed to be as heavy ns as anywhere else in III the world kven even nt at midday in some of the forests the light Is no brighter thun than at twilight in open cou country n t ry in a glade with dense eg elation on all sides one feels that he hns has been dropped down zito into tile the bottom of a deep green lined pit the country on tile the eastern slopes of ilie andes and on oil the foothills before the donae forest Is reached has ben settled ery sparsely but over Illo nandi indi or of square miles of tile the tile alie foot of civilized man mail has neer trod irod A row few tribes of uncivil laed indians roam main th through these forest depths many large ahers jiin rising on oil the cast eastern slopes of tile andes flow across tile hie fontana ion tana region of peru into brazil and finally find their way aay into the atlantic 2000 miles away through the mighty Ani amazon azrin ocean vessels ascend tile the amazon to equito the llie metropolis of caliern caI chii lern ern peru nearly miles within if peruvian permian territory and by river boats the jour journey ricy way may ile be continued to within miles of the pacific along many or of the rivers in eastern easl err peru are towns of some importance which are I 1 the outposts of peruvian civilization commerce and government in tills iso so trans audean andean empire |