sibly east and west from Puno, Peru, to the heights above La Paz, and from north to south the full length of the great inter-andean plains of Bolivia and Peru. If its water level, as indicated by its ancient shore lines, "had an elevation of at least 300 or 400 feet higher than at present," as claimed by Prof. Agassiz, then the presence of such a vast inland sea as described is made reasonably certain.
The watershed between the rivers leading to the headwaters of the Amazon and those flowing into Lake Titicaca and the Desaguadero River is formed by the great snow range of the Eastern Cordillera sweeping northward from the Illimani to the Illampu, which stand like giant sentinels overlooking its silver crest.
Two hundred and eighty miles to the south of Lake Titicaca, is Lake Poopó or Aullagas, which, although without any known outlet, receives the drainage of Lake Titicaca through the Desaguadero River. Its area is approximately 30 by 50 miles, and it is of sufficient depth for steam navigation at all seasons of the year.
The line of steamers traversing Lake Titicaca run as far south as the town of Desaguadero, the head of navigation on the Desaguadero River. From here, smaller steamers, engaged in bringing up the silver and tin ores of Oruro and the copper of Corocoro, descend to a point 40 miles below. In order to facilitate the transportation of these metals to Puno, the lake terminus of the Mollendo and Puno Railroad, and to meet the competing rates offered by the Antofagasta Railway Company, which has just completed its line to Oruro and is building it on to La Paz, the Peruvian Corporation has secured a concession from the Bolivian Government to canalize the Desaguadero so as to extend navigation some 200 miles farther south, or within about 10 miles of Oruro.
When this important enterprise has been completed, and the shores of Lake Titicaca and the Desaguadero are touched, as they: will be, at all points by steamers plying their waters for a distance
