Page 95
Andes of Chili and Peru.
An. 1684
and thofe that are fartheft within Land are much higher than the others. They always appear blue when feen at Sea: fometimes they are obfcured with Clouds, but not fo often as the high Lands in other parts of the world; for here are feldorn, or never any Rains on thefe Hills, any more than in the Sea near it; neither are they fubject to Fogs. Thefe are the higheft Mountains that ever I faw, far furpaffing the Pike of Tenariffe, or Santa Martha, and I believe any Mountains in the world.
I have feen very high Land in the Lat. of 30 South, but not fo high as in the Latitudes before defcribed. In Sir John Narborough's Voyage alfo to Baldivia (a City on this Coaft) mention is made of very high Land feen near Baldivia: and the Spa- niard: with whom I have difcourfed have told me, that there is very high Land all the way between Coquimbo (which lies in about 30 deg. S. Lat.) and Baldivia, which is in 40 South; fo that by all like- lihood thefe ridges of Mountains do run in a con- tinued Chain from one end of Peru and Chili to the other, all along this South Sea Coaft, called ufually the Andes, or Sierra Nuevada des Andes. The exceffive heighth of thefe Mountains may, poffibly, be the reafon, that there are no Rivers of note that fall into thefe Seas. Some fmall Rivers indeed there are, but very few of them, for in fome places there is not one that comes out into the Sea in 150 or 200 Leagues; and where they are thickeft they are 30, 40, or 50 Leagues afunder, and too little and fhallow to be navigable. Befides, fome of thefe do not con- ftantly run, but are dry at certain feafons of the year: as the River of Ylo, runs fluJh with a quick Current at the latter end of January, and fo con- tinues till June, and then it decreafeth by degrees, growing lefs, and running flow till the latter end of September, when it fails wholly, and runs no more till January again: This I have feen at both fea- fons,