The adjacent Cordillera, which is only 12 leagues distant, is very high, and one of its summits, called _Illimani_, is covered with perpetual snow, which exposes the district to so cold a climate, that hard frosts, storms of hail, &c., are not uncommon. But the city is not subject to these, enjoying a salubrious air, and considerable heat. The unequal ground on which La Paz is seated, the snow-clad mountains, the fertile valleys and the fine river give peculiar charms to its scenery. The inhabitants in the district around the city are mostly confined to the valley, as the higher grounds are covered with forests which afford shelter to bears, jaguars, pumas, &c. They find some gold in the river, when it is increased by the melting of the snow, which forces large masses of rock from the mountain of Illimani. In 1730, an Indian discovered in this stream a lump of gold of such size, that it was bought for 12,000 piastres, and sent to the king. La Paz has a fine cathedral and four churches, four convents, a college, three nunneries, and an hospital, and contains 20,000 inhabitants, who are chiefly engaged in trading in Paraguay tea. A late traveller represents it to be an elegant and clean place. It is a bishop's see, whose revenues are very considerable. This city had formerly the five following provinces or districts under its jurisdiction, and its bishop still holds ecclesiastical sway over them; _viz._ Omasuyos, Pacages, Laricaxas, Chucuito and Paucarcolla. The district of OMASUYOS begins at the gates of La Paz, and extends 20 leagues, being bounded on the west by lake Chucuito or Titicaca. Its climate is very cold, so that it produces little corn; but its pastures feed a great number of cattle; and it has four gold mines. It is chiefly inhabited by Indians. Near the borders of this province is the town or village of _Tiahanuaco_, in which are colossal pyramids and gigantic figures cut out of stone; and these, though much injured by the weather, are highly singular, and are conjectured to have existed before the times of the Peruvian Incas. This place is thirty-six miles north-west of La Paz, in south latitude 17° 17' and very near the south-east coast of lake Titicaca. Unfortunately no traveller has given a detailed account of these images, which are supposed to be the most ancient and singular in America. PACAJES is bounded on the north by Chucuito and the great lake; north-east, by Omasuyos; east, by La Paz and Sicasica; south, by Oruro, Paria and Carangas, and south-west and west, by the Peruvian province of Arica, which is separated from it by the lofty chain of the Andes.