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Show 416 PLATEAU OF OAXAMAROA. to the height of Mont Blanc )-as we were leading our heavily laden mules with great difficulty through the marshy ground on the elevated plain del Pullal, our eyes meanwhile were continually dwelling on the grand remains of the Inca's road, which with a breadth of twenty-one English feet ran by our side for above a German mile. It had a deep under-structure, and was paved with well-cut blocks of blackish trap-porphyry. Nothing that I had seen of the remains of Roman roads in Italy, in the south of France, and in Spain, was more imposing than these works of the ancient Peruvians, which are moreover situated, according to my barometric measurements, at an elevation of 12,440 (13,258 English) feet above the sea, or more than a thousand feet higher than the summit of the Peak of Teneri:ffe. The ruins of what is called the Palace of the Inca Tupac Yupanqui, and which are known by the name of the "Paredones del Inca," are situated at the same elevation on the Assuay. Proceeding from, thence to the southward towards Cuenca, the road leads to the small but well-preserved fortress of Cafiar, (4) belonging probably to the same period, that of Tupac Yupanqui, or to that of his warlike son, Huayna Capac. We saw still finer remains of the old Peruvian artificial roads on the way between Loxa and the Amazons, at the Baths of the Incas on the Paramo de Chulucanas, not far from Guancabamba, and in the neighborhood of Ingatambo, at Pomahuaca. These last-named remains are at a so much lower elevation, that I found the difference of level between the Inca's Road at Pomahuaca and that on the Paramo del Assuay upwards of 9100 (about 9700 English) feet. The distance in a straight line is, by astronomically determined latitudes, exactly 184 English geographical miles, and the ascent of the road is 3500 (3730 English) feet greater than the height of the Pass of Mount Cenis above the Lake of Como. There are two great artificial Peruvian paved roads, or systems of roads, covered with fiat stones, or sometimes even with cemented gravel CS) (Macadamized); one passes through the wide and arid plain between the Pacific Ocean and the chain of the Andes, and the other over the ridges of the Cordilleras. Mile-stones, or stones marking the distances, are often found placed at equal intervals. The road was conducted across rivers and deep ravines by three kind of bridges, stone, wood, |