Next to Lima, the most important] factor in Central Peru is the Andean Railway, Engineers speak of it with bates 4.onth as the most daring railway in che world. It was begun in 4879 by sao famous American contractor Mciggs and, completed by British engineers, performs mivacl: s of zigzags, loops' and hairpin herds in mounting the Andes.
Those who deal in statistics will doubtless be interested to learn that in a distance of 158 miles it rises three miles high, that it frequently has a grade of 4 per cent, that it crosses 61 bridges, through 66 tun nels, over 21 switchbacks, I'a highest tunnel is only 200 feet below the height of Europe's pride, Mont Blane. It then drops down to Oroya, a copper-smelting place foul with sulphur fumes, lying at 12,220 feet} above the sea.' "Some railroad! our American friends would say.
But these figures give no conception of the terrifying precipices, the dizzy zigzags, the stupendous gorges and superb mountain scenery that fill the traveller with such mingled emotion:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.