Situated at a height where the enervating power of the tropical sun is not felt, and where at the same time the air is not too rarefied, these pleasant mountain vales, protected by their rocky walls against the gusts of the puna, enjoy all the advantages of a genial sky. Here the astonished European sees himself surrounded by the rich corn-fields, the green lucern-meadows, and the well-known fruit trees of his distant home; so that he might almost fancy that some friendly enchanter had transported him to his native country, but for the cactuses and the agaves on the mountain-slopes by day, and the constellations of another hemisphere in the heavens by night.
這些宜人的山谷所處的位置正好避開了那令人萎靡不振的炎熱太陽光強勁照耀的區域，那里的空氣也恰到好處，在面對冷高原的狂風時還有巖石墻為其做護盾，簡直盡享了和煦天空帶來的所有福利。來到這里的歐洲人會驚訝地發現自己被富饒的玉米地、綠色的苜蓿草甸和遠方家鄉著名的果樹所包圍，如果不是因為看到了白天山坡上的仙人掌、龍舌蘭以及夜空中象征另一個半球的點點星座，他們甚至會懷疑自己是不是被善良的巫師用魔法傳送到了母國。
There are regions in this remarkable country where the traveller may leave the snow-roofed puna hut in the morning, and before sunset pluck pine-apples and bananas on the cultivated margin of the primeval forest; where in the morning the stunted grasses and arid lichens of the naked plain remind him of the Arctic regions, and where he may repose at night under the fronds of gigantic palms.
這個非凡的國度里有那么一些地方，在那里，旅行者們可以在清晨從被雪鋪滿了屋頂的冷高原小屋內出發，在原始森林的開墾邊緣采摘菠蘿和香蕉到日落時分回歸；在那里，清晨光禿禿的平原上那矮小的草木和干旱的地衣會促使旅行者們不禁憶起北極地區；在那里，他們可以在夜晚躺在巨大的棕櫚葉下沉沉睡去。
Descending to the Pacific sea-bord, we come upon the desolate Peruvian sand-coast, where the eye seldom sees anything but fine drift-sand and sterile heaps of stone; and where for miles and miles the traveller meets no traces of vegetation, nor finds one drop of water. But when we pass to the other side of the Andes, how marvellous the contrast! On the one side, an arid, waterless, treeless waste; on the other, the luxuriant valley of the Amazon, the giant of rivers, which has made a broad course for itself through vast savannas and stupendous forests!
我們往下一路來到太平洋沿岸，那里是荒涼的秘魯沙灘海岸，放眼望去那片區域除了細沙和一堆堆貧瘠的石頭外一無所有，即使數英里之外的地方也沒有草木和水源的蹤跡。然而，當我們來到安第斯山脈的另一側時，景致的反差會讓我們大吃一驚！一側是干旱、水源貧瘠、不生草木的荒地，另一側則是富饒的亞馬遜河流域，那是一條穿行在廣袤的熱帶草原和巨大的森林里浩浩蕩蕩流淌著的寬大的河流。
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