PASCO, or CERRO DI PASCO, a town of Peru, capital of the department of Junin, stands in an irregular hollow in the elevated plain of Bonbon, 140 miles N.E. of Lima. It is meanly and irregularly built on uneven ground, the houses being for the most part low and wretched, and generally thatched. The ground on which it is built abounds in silver ore, and is almost honeycombed by the mines, many of which open in the interior of the houses. These silver mines occupy a space about 15 miles broad, from E. to W.; but it is only the most valuable of them that are now worked. Coal is also found in the vicinity. As the surrounding country is very barren, most of the provisions have to be brought to Pasco from a distance. This town is the highest permanently-inhabited spot in America, and probably also in the whole world. Its elevation is stated at 14,280 feet above the level of the sea. The population varies at different periods from 7000 to 18,000, according to the season of the year and the state of the mines.