It lies close beneath the surface, and follows for a length of one hundred and fifty miles the margin of a grand basin or plain; this, from its outline, manifestly must once have been a lake, or more probably an inland arm of the sea, as may be inferred from the presence of iodic salts in the saline stratum.
The surface of the plain is 3300 feet above the Pacific.
JULY 19, 1835.
We anchored in the Bay of Callao, the seaport of Lima, the capital of Peru.

We stayed here six weeks, but from the troubled state of public affairs I saw very little of the country.

During our whole visit the climate was far from being so delightful as it is generally represented.

A dull heavy bank of clouds constantly hung over the land, so that during the first sixteen days I had only one view of the Cordillera behind Lima.

These mountains, seen in stages, one above the other, through openings in the clouds, had a very grand appearance.