The Andes and the Himalaya, the most stupendous mountain-chains of the world, raise their snow-clad summits either within the tropics or immediately beyond their verge, and must be considered as ordained by Providence to counteract the effects of the vertical sunbeams over a vast extent of land. In Western Tropical America, in Asia, and in Africa, there are immense countries rising like terraces thousands of feet above the level of the ocean, and reminding the European traveler of his distant northern home by their productions and their cool temperature. Thus, by means of a few simple physical and geological causes acting and reacting upon each other on a magnificent scale, Nature has bestowed a wonderful variety of climate upon the tropical regions, producing a no less wonderful diversity of plants and of animals.

安第斯山脉和喜马拉雅山脉是世界上最令人惊叹的的山脉链，它们被积雪覆盖的峰顶要么处在热带地区，要么处在热带地区的边缘之外，它们肯定是上帝派来为了抵消大片土地饱受垂直阳光照射的影响。在热带美洲的西部、亚洲和非洲地区，有一些庞大的国家像梯田一样从海平面一跃而起并高出海平面数千英尺，那里的作物和凉爽的气候使来自欧洲的旅行者们不禁想起自己遥远的北方家园。所以说，简单的物理和地质手段便能对彼此造成很大规模的影响，大自然赋予了热带地区丰富多样的气候，也造就了同样令人感叹的多样的动植物种类。

Embracing the broad base of South America, the tropical regions bring before us the wide-spreading llanos of Venezue'la and New Grana'da; the majestic Andes, rising through every zone of vegetation to an Arctic region of perpetual snow; and the high table-lands of Peru and Bolivia, where the llama, the alpaca, and the vicuna have their home. The frosts of winter and an eternal spring are nowhere found in closer proximity than in the Peruvian highlands: for deep valleys cleave the windy Puna, as these lofty table-lands are called; and when the traveller, benumbed by the cold blasts of the mountain-plains, descends into the sheltered gorges, he almost suddenly finds himself transported from a northern climate to a terrestrial paradise.

环抱着整个南美洲广阔地域的热带地区给我们带来了广袤无垠的委内瑞拉大草原和新格兰内大草原，雄伟的安第斯山脉从每一棵植被根处拔地而起一路延伸到终年积雪的北极地区。还有秘鲁和玻利维亚的高原地带，那里是美洲驼、羊驼和骆马的栖息地，只有在秘鲁高原才能如此近距离地欣赏冬霜和长春两大景致：因为深壑撕裂了多风的冷高原，就如同这些高耸平原的称谓一样；在旅行者们被来自高山平原的冷风吹得麻木不堪并潜进可以挡风的峡谷之时，他们会发现自己瞬间脱离了北方的寒冷气候而进入了人间天堂。