next to nothing, but it seems to be established
that it has no outlet to the sea. Thus this Titicaca basin is but
another example of interior basins like that of our own great Salt Lake.
It is not, however, favorably situated for agricultural purposes. It
is a "region where barley will not ripen except under very favorable
circumstances and where maize in its most diminutive size has its
most precarious development; where the potato, shrunk to its smallest
proportions, is bitter; where the only grain is the quinoa, and where
the only indigenous animals fit for food are the biscacha, the llama and
the vicuna."<4>

Thus we see that a large part of the interior of Peru was not desirable
for habitations. But this great plateau region north of the basin of
Lake Titicaca is here and there broken up by what we would call valleys,
but which the Spaniards more appropriately named _bolsons,_ literally
meaning "pockets." These bolsons are of various altitudes, and,
therefore have different climates and productions. Some are well drained
and fertile, others are marshy and contain considerable lakes. As a
general thing, the bolsons are separated from each other by stretches
of the dreary, desolate plateau; or by ranges of precipitous hills and
mountains, or by profound gorges, along which courses some river on its
way to swell the flood of the mighty Amazon.

The coast range of mountains of which we have spoken runs nearly
parallel to the coast, distant from it about forty miles. This stretch
of country along the entire coast of ancient Peru is mainly a desert.
Owing to causes which we need not explain, rain is almost unknown; the
consequence is, the coast presents a dreary, verdureless, forbidding
appearance. The melting snows on the great Cordillera, however, send
down, here and there, on their western flanks, feeble rivers. Some of
these rivers reach the sea, others prolong their flow but a few miles
from the mountains before the thirsty desert swallows them from view. As
is true of all desert countries, all that is needed to render it fertile
is water; so, wherever these rivers occur there are found wonderfully
fertile valleys. Every one of these valleys was once thickly settled,
but, like the bolsons of the interior, they were not connected with
each other. Each valley is separated from its neighbor by many miles
of almost trackless desert, across which the Incas are said to have
indicated the road by means of stakes driven in