American Continent—The Mountains of South America—The Andes—The Mountains of the Parima and Brazil.

Some thinner portion of the crust of the globe under the meridians that traverse the continent of America from Cape Horn to the Arctic Ocean must have yielded to the expansive forces of the subterranean fires, or been rent by contraction of the strata in cooling. Through this the Andes had arisen, producing the greatest influence on the form of the continent, and the peculiar simplicity that prevails in its principal mountains systems, which, with very few exceptions, have a general tendency from north to south. The continent is 9000 miles long, and, its form being two great peninsulas joined by a long narrow isthmus, it is divided by nature into three parts, of South, Central, and North America; yet these three are connected by the mighty chain of the Andes, but little inferior in height to the Himalaya, running along the coast of the Pacific from within the Arctic nearly to the Antarctic circle. In this course every variety of climate is to be met with, from the rigour of polar congelation to the scorching heat of the torrid zone; while the mountains are so high that the same extremes of heat and cold may be experienced in the journey of a few hours from the burning plains of Peru to the snow-clad peaks above. In this long chain there are three distinct varieties of character, nearly, though not entirely, corresponding to the three natural divisions of the continent. The Andes of South America differ materially from those of Central America and Mexico, while both are dissimilar to the North American prolongation of the chain, generally known as the Chippewayan or Rocky Mountains.

The greatest length of South America, from Cape Horn to the Isthmus of PanamÁ is about 4020 geographical miles. It is very narrow at its southern extremity, but increases in width northwards to the latitude of Cape Roque on the Atlantic, between which and Cape Blanco on the Pacific it attains its greatest breadth of nearly 2750 miles. It consists of three mountain systems, separated by the basins of three of the greatest rivers in the world. The Andes run along the western coast from Cape Horn to the Isthmus of PanamÁ, in a single chain of inconsiderable width but majestic height, dipping rapidly to the narrow maritime plains of the Pacific, but descending on the east in high valleys and occasional offsets to plains of vast extent, whose dead level is for hundreds of miles as unbroken as that of the ocean by which they are bounded. Nevertheless, two detached mountain systems rise on these plains, one in Brazil between the Rio de la Plata and the river of the Amazons; the other is that of Parima and Guiana, lying between the river of the Amazons and the Orinoco.

The great chain of the Andes first raises its crest above the waves of the Antarctic Ocean in the majestic dark mass of Cape Horn, the southernmost point of the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego. This group of mountainous islands, equal in size to Britain, is cut off from the main land by the Straits of Magellan. The islands are penetrated in every direction by bays and narrow inlets of the sea, or fiords, ending often in glaciers fed by the snow on the summits of mountains 6000 feet high. Peatmosses cover the higher declivities of these mountains, and their flanks are beset with densely entangled forests of brown beech, which never lose their dusky leaves, producing altogether a savage, dismal scene. The mountains which occupy the western side of this cluster of islands sink down to wide level plains to the east, like the continent itself, of which the archipelago is but the southern extremity.^[40]

The Pacific washes the very base of the Patagonian Andes for about 1000 miles, from Cape Horn to the 40th parallel of south latitude. The whole coast is lined by a succession of archipelagos and islands, separated from the iron-bound shores by narrow arms of the sea, which, in the more southern part, are in fact profound longitudinal valleys of the Andes filled by the ocean, so that the chain of islands running parallel to the axes of the mountains is but the summits of an exterior range rising above the sea.

The coast itself for 650 miles is begirt by walls of rock, which sink into unfathomable depths, torn by long crevices or fiords, similar to those on the Norwegian shore, ending in tremendous glaciers, whose masses, falling with a crash like thunder, drive the sea in sweeping breakers through these chasms. The islands and the mainland are thickly clothed with forests, which are of a less sombre aspect as the latitude decreases.

Between the Pass of Chacabuco north of Santiago, the capital of Chile, and the archipelago of Chiloe, a chain of hills, composed in general of crystalline rocks, borders the coast; between which and the Andes exists a longitudinal valley, well watered by the rivers descending from the central chain, and which constitutes the most fertile portion, nay the garden of the Chillian republic—the rich provinces of Santiago, Colchagua, and Maule. This longitudinal depression may be considered as a prolongation of the strait that separates Chiloe from the mainland. Many peaks of the Andes enter within the limits of perpetual snow, between the 40th and 31st parallels; and some of which are active volcanos. In lat. 32° 39' rises the giant of the American Andes, the Nevado of Aconcagua, which towers over the Chillian village of the same name, and is so clearly visible from Valparaiso. Although designated as a volcano, a term generally applied in Chile to every elevated and snowy peak, it offers no trace of modern igneous origin. It appears to be composed of a species of porphyry generally found in the centre of the Chillian chain. Its height, according to Captain Beechey’s very accurate observations, exceeds 24,000 feet.^[41]

About the latitude of Concepcion the dense forests of Araucarias and of other semi-tropical plants cease with the humid equable climate; and as no rain falls in central Chile for nine months in the year, the brown, purple, and tile-red hills and mountains are only dotted here and there with low trees and bushes; very soon, however, after the heavy showers have moistened the cracked ground, it is covered with a beautiful but transient flora. In some valleys it is more permanent and of a tropical character, mixed with alpine plants.^[42] In southern Chile rain falls only once in two or three years, the consequence of which is sterility on the western precipitous and unbroken descent of the Andes; but on the east, two secondary branches leave the central Cordillera, which extend 300 or 400 miles into the plains, wooded to a great height. The Sierra de Cordova, the most southern of these, begins between the 33d and 31st parallels, and extends in the direction of the Pampas; more to the north, the Sierra di Salta and Juguy stretches from the valley of Catamarca and Tucuman towards the Rio Vermejo, one of the tributaries of the Rio de la Plata.

The chain takes the name of the Peruvian Andes about the 24th degree of south latitude, and is separated from the Pacific by a range of hills composed of crystalline rocks, and parallel to the sea coast, and of an intervening sandy desert, seldom above 60 miles broad, on which rain scarcely ever falls, where bare rocks pierce through the moving sand. The width of the coast is nearly the same to the Isthmus of PanamÁ, but damp luxuriant forests full of orchideÆ, begin about the latitude of Payta, and continue northwards.

From its southern extremity to the Nevado of Chorolque, in 21° 30' S. lat., the Andes are merely one grand and continuous range of mountains, but north of that the chain intercepts a very elevated table-land, or wide longitudinal valley, in the direction of the chain, bounded on each side by a parallel range of high mountains, rising much above it. These parallel Cordilleras are united at various points by enormous transverse groups or mountain-knots, or by single ranges crossing between them like dykes, a structure that prevails to Pasto, 1° 13' 6 N. lat. The descent to the Pacific is very steep; the dip is also very rapid to the east, whence offsets diverge to the level plains.

Unlike the table-lands of Asia of the same elevation, where cultivation is confined to the more sheltered spots, or those still lower in Europe, which are only fit for pasture, these lofty regions of the Andes yield exuberant crops of every European grain, and have many populous cities enjoying the luxuries of life, with universities, libraries, civil and religious establishments, at altitudes equal to that of the Peak of Teneriffe, which is 12,170 feet above the sea-level. Villages are placed and mines are worked at heights as great and even greater than the top of Mont Blanc.^[43] This state is not limited to the present times, since these table-lands were once the centre of civilization by a race of mankind which “bear the same relation to the Incas and the present inhabitants that the Etruscans bear to the ancient Romans and to the Italians of our own days.”

The table-land or valley of Desaguadero, one of the most remarkable of these, has an absolute altitude of 12,900 feet, and a breadth varying from 30 to 60 miles: it stretches 400 miles between the two parallel chains of the Andes, and between the transverse mountain-group of Lipez, in 20° S. lat., and the enormous mountain-knot of VilcaÑota, which, extending from east to west, shuts in the valley on the north-west, and occupying an area three times as large as Switzerland, some of the snowy peaks rising 8300 feet above the surface of the table-land, from which an idea may be formed of the gigantic scale of the Andes. This table-land or valley is bounded on each side by the two grand chains of the Bolivian Andes: that on the west is the Cordillera of the coast; the range on the east is the Bolivian Cordillera, properly speaking; and on its north-west prolongation the Cordillera Real.^[44] These two rows of mountains lie so near the edge that the whole breadth of the table-land, including both, is only 226 miles. All the snowy peaks of the Cordilleras of the coast are either active volcanoes or of igneous origin, and are all situate near the maritime declivity of the chain; consequently, the descent is very abrupt. The eastern Cordillera, which begins at the metalliferous mountain of Potosi, is below the level of perpetual snow to the south, but its northern portion contains the three peaked mountains of Sorata, of SupÄÍwasi, and Illimani, and is one of the most magnificent portions of the Andes.^[45] The snowy part begins with the gigantic mass of Illimani, whose serrated ridges are elongated in the direction of the axis of the chain. The lowest glacier on its southern slope does not descend below 16,500 feet, and the valley of Totoral, a mere gulf in which Vesuvius might stand, comes between Illimani and the Nevado of La Mesada, from whence the eastern Cordillera runs to the north-west in a continuous line of snow-clad peaks to the group of VilcaÑoto, where it unites with the Cordillera of the coast.

The valley of the Desaguadero, occupying 150,000 square miles, has a considerable variety of surface; in the south, throughout the mining district, it is poor and cold. Potosi, the highest city in the world, stands at an absolute elevation of 13,330 feet, at the foot of a mountain celebrated for its silver mines. Chiquisaca, the capital of Bolivia, containing 13,000 inhabitants, lies to the north-east of Potosi, in the midst of cultivated fields. The northern part of the valley is populous, and produces wheat, barley, and other grain; and the Lake of Titicaca, twenty times as large as the Lake of Geneva, fills the north-western portion of this great basin. The islands and shores of this lake still exhibit ruins of gigantic magnitude, monuments of a people more ancient than the Incas. The modern city of La Paz with 40,000 inhabitants, not far from its southern shores, stands in the most sublime situation that can be imagined, having in full view the vast Nevado of Illimani to the east-south-east at a distance of seven leagues.

Many offsets leave the eastern side of the Bolivian Cordillera which terminates in the great plain of Chiquitos and Paraguay; the most important is the Cordillera of YuracaraËs, which bounds the rich valley of Cochabamba on the north, and ends near the town of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

There are some fertile valleys in the snow-capped group of VilcaÑota and Cusco. The city of Cusco, which contains nearly 50,000 inhabitants, was the capital of the empire of the Incas: it still contains numerous ruins of that dynasty, among which the remains of the Temple of the sun and its Cyclopean Fortress still mark its former splendour. Four ancient Peruvian roads led from Cusco to the different parts of the empire, little inferior in many respects to the old Roman ways: all crossing mountain-passes higher than the Peak of Teneriffe. On the northern prolongation of the chain, in lat. 11° S., encircled by the Andes, is the elevated plain of Bombon, near to the celebrated silver-mines of Pasco, at a height of 14,000 feet above the sea. In it is situated the Lake of Lauricocha, which may be considered, from its remoteness, as one of the sources of the Amazon. There are many small lakes on the table-lands and high valleys of the Andes, some even within the range of perpetual snow. They are very cold and deep, often of the purest sea-green colour; some of them may have been craters of extinct volcanos.

The chain of the Andes is divided into three ranges of mountains running from south to north in the transverse group or mountain-knot of Pasco and Huanuco, which shuts in the valley of Bombon between the 11th and 10th parallels of south latitude: that in the centre separates the wide fertile valley of the Upper MaraÑon from the still richer valley of the Huallaga, whilst the more eastern forms the barrier between the latter and the tropical valley of the Yucayali. The western chain alone reaches the limit of perpetual snow, and, if we except the Nevado of Huaylillas, in 7° 50', no mountain north of this for nearly 400 miles to the Andes of Quito arrives at the snow-line.

In lat. 4° 50' S. the Andes form the mountain-knot of Loxa, once celebrated for its forests, in which the cinchona or Peruvian bark was discovered. From this knot the chain divides into two great longitudinal ridges or cordilleras, in an extent of 350 miles, passing through the republic of the Equator to the mountain-group of Los Pastos in that of New Grenada. These ridges enclose a vast longitudinal valley, which, divided by the cross ridges of Assuay and Chisinche into three basins, form the valleys of CuenÇa, Tapia, and Quito. The plain of CuenÇa offers little interest; that of Tapia is magnificent; whilst the valley of Quito is one of extraordinary beauty: on either side rise a series of snow-capped peaks, celebrated in every way in the history of science, as the valley itself is in that of the aboriginal races of the New World. Here the energies of volcanic action have been studied with the greatest fruits; here, now one hundred years ago, took place that measurement of an arc of the meridian which afforded the most accurate data at the time towards the determination of the mass and form of our planet, and which has conferred eternal honour on the body with which it originated, the French Academy of Sciences; and celebrity on the names of Bouguier, La Condamine, and Godin, Don George Juan and Ulloa, who conducted it on the part of the crowns of France and of Spain.

The Cordillera or ridge which hems in the valley of Quito on the east contains the snow-capped peaks of Antisana, Cotopaxi, one of the most beautiful of active volcanoes, whose dazzling cone rises to a height of 18,775 feet, of Tungaragua and el-Altar, the latter once equal to Chimborazo in height, and Sangay. The western range includes the gigantic Chimborazo, which may be seen from the coast of the Pacific, the pyramidal peak of Illinissa, the wreck of an ancient volcano. The height of Illinissa was measured by the French Academicians, by very careful operations, directly above the level of the ocean, the latter being visible from it; and by its means the absolute elevation of the valley of Quito, and of the other peaks that encircle it, was deduced, as well as the first approximate value of the barometrical coefficient. North of Chimborazo and near it is the CarguÄirazo, and close to the city of Quito rises the scarcely less celebrated volcano of Pichincha, whilst the Nevado of CayambÈ, whose summit, elevated 19,535 feet, is traversed by the terrestrial equator, perhaps the greatest and most remarkable landmark on the surface of our planet, closes the north-east extremity of the valley.

The valley of Quito, one of the finest in the Andes, is 200 miles long and 30 wide, with a mean altitude of 10,000 feet, bounded by the most magnificent series of volcanoes and mountains in the New World. A peculiar interest is attached to two of the many volcanos in the parallel Cordilleras that flank it on each side. The beautiful snow-clad cone of CayambÈ Urcu, as already stated, traversed by the equator, the most remarkable division of the globe closes it on the north; and in the western Cordillera the cross still stands on the summit of Pichincha, 15,924 feet above the Pacific, which served for a signal to Bouguier and La Condamine in their memorable measurement of an arc of the meridian.^[46]

Some parts of the plain of Quito to the south are sterile, but the soil generally is good, and perpetual spring clothes it with exuberant vegetation. The city of Quito, containing 70,000 inhabitants, on the side of Pichincha has an absolute height of 9540 feet. The city is well built and handsome; the churches are splendid; it possesses universities, the comforts and luxuries of civilized life, in a situation of unrivalled grandeur and beauty. Thus, on the very summit of the Andes there is a world by itself, with its mountains and its valleys, its lakes and rivers, populous towns and cultivated fields. Many monuments of the Incas are still found in good preservation in these plains, where the scenery is most noble—eleven volcanic cones are visible from one spot. Although the Andes are inferior in height to the Himalaya, yet the domes of trachyte, the truncated cones of the active volcanos, and the serrated ruins of those that are extinct, mixed with the bold features of primary mountains, give an infinitely greater variety to the scene, while the smoke, and very often the flame, issuing from these regions of perpetual snow increase its sublimity. Stupendous as these mountains appear even from the plains of the table-land, they are merely the inequalities of the tops of the Andes, the serrated summit of that mighty chain.

Between the large group of Los Pastos, containing several active volcanos, and the group of Las Papas, in the second degree of north latitude, the bottom of the valley is only 6900 feet above the sea; and north of the latter mountain-knot the crest of the Andes splits into three Cordilleras, which diverge not again to unite. The most westerly of these, the chain of Choco, which may be considered the continuation of the great chain, divides the valley of the river Cauca from the Pacific; it is only 5000 feet high, and the lowest of the three. Though but 20 miles broad, it is so steep, and so difficult of access, that travellers cannot cross it on mules, but are carried on men’s shoulders: it is rich in gold and platina. The central branch, or Cordillera of Quindiu, runs due north between the Magdalena and Cauca, rising to a great height in the volcanic Peak of Tolima. The two last chains are united by the mountain-knot of Antioquia, of which little more is known than that it forms two great masses, which, after separating the streams of the Magdalena, Cauca, and Atrato, trends to the N.W., greatly reduced in height, and with the chain of Choco forms the low mountains of the Isthmus of PanamÁ. The most easterly of the three Cordilleras, called the Sierra de la Summa Paz, spreads out on its western declivity into the table-lands of Bogota, Tunja, and others, the ancient Cundinamarca, which have an elevation of about 9000 feet; whilst on its eastern slope rise the rivers Guaviari and Meta, which form the head waters of the Orinoco. The tremendous crevice of Icononzo occurs in the path leading from the city of Santa FÉ de Bogota to the banks of the Magdalena. It probably was formed by an earthquake, and is like an empty mineral vein, across which are two natural bridges: the lowest is composed of stones that have been jammed between the rocks in their fall.^[47] This Cordillera comprises the Andes of Cundinamarca and Merida, and goes north-east through New Grenada to the 10th northern parallel, where it joins the coast-chain of Venezuela or Caraccas, which runs due east, and ends at Cape Paria in the Caribbean Sea, or rather at the eastern extremity of the island of Trinidad. This coast-chain is so majestic and beautiful that Baron Humboldt says it is like the Alps rising out of the sea without their snow. The insulated group of Santa Martha, 19,000 feet high, deeply covered with snow, stands on an extensive plain between the delta of the Magdalena and the sea-lake of Maracaybo, and is a landmark to mariners far off in the Caribbean Sea.

The passes over the Chilian Andes are numerous; that of the Portillo, leading from St. Jago to Mendoza, is the highest; it crosses two ridges, offering a valley between, a diminutive representation of the great Peru-Bolivian depression and of the valley of Quito; the most elevated is so high that vegetation ceases far below its summit. Those in Peru are higher, though very few reach the snow-line. In Bolivia the mean elevation of the passes in the western and eastern Cordillera is 14,892 and 14,422 feet respectively. That leading from Sorata to the auriferous valley of Tipauni is perhaps the highest in Bolivia. From the total absence of vegetation, and the intense cold, it is supposed to be 16,000 feet above the Pacific; those to the north are but little lower. The pass of Quindiu in Colombia, though not so high, is the most difficult of all across the Andes: but those crossing the mountain-knots from one table-land to another are the most dangerous; for example, that over the Paramo del Assuay, in the plain of Quito, where the road is nearly as high as Mont Blanc, and travellers not unfrequently perish from cold winds in attempting it.^[48]

On the western side of the Andes little or no rain falls, except at their most southern extremity, and scanty vegetation appears only on spots or in small valleys, watered by streams from the Andes. Excessive heat and moisture combine to cover the eastern side and its offsets with tangled forests of large trees and dense brushwood. This exuberance diminishes as the height increases, till at last the barren rocks are covered only by snow and glaciers. In the Andes near the equator, glaciers descending below the snow-line are unknown. The steepness of the declivities and the dryness of the air, at such great elevations, prevent any accumulation of infiltrated water: the annual changes of temperature besides are small. Nothing can surpass the desolation of these regions, where nature has been shaken by terrific convulsions. The dazzling snow fatigues the eye; the huge masses of bold rock, the mural precipices, and the chasms yawning into dark unknown depths, strike the imagination; while the crash of the avalanche, or the rolling thunder of the volcano, startles the ear. In the dead of night, when the sky is clear and the wind hushed, the hollow moaning of the volcanic fire fills the Indian with superstitious dread in the deathlike stillness of these solitudes.

In the very elevated plains in the transverse groups, such as that of Bombon, however pure the sky, the landscape is lurid and colourless: the dark-blue shadows are sharply defined, and from the thinness of the air it is hardly possible to make a just estimate of distance. Changes of weather are sudden and violent; clouds of black vapour arise and are carried by fierce winds over the barren plains; snow and hail are driven with irresistible impetuosity; and thunder-storms come on, loud and awful, without warning. Notwithstanding the thinness of the air, the crash of the peals is quite appalling; while the lightning runs along the scorched grass, and, sometimes issuing from the ground, destroys a team of mules or a flock of sheep at one flash.^[49]

Currents of warm air are occasionally met with on the crest of the Andes—an extraordinary phenomenon on such gelid heights, which is not yet accounted for: they generally occur two hours after sunset, are local and narrow, not exceeding a few fathoms in width, similar to the equally partial blasts of hot air in the Alps. A singular instance, probably, of earth-light occurs in crossing the Andes from Chile to Mendoza. On this rocky scene a peculiar brightness occasionally rests, a kind of undescribable reddish light, which vanishes during the winter rains, and is not perceptible on sunny days. Dr. Poeppig ascribes the phenomenon to the dryness of the air: he was confirmed in his opinion from afterwards observing a similar brightness on the coast of Peru, and it has also been seen in Egypt.

The Andes descend to the eastern plains by a series of cultivated levels, as those of Tucuman, Salta, and Jujuy, in the Republic of La Plata, with many others. That of Tucuman is 2500 feet above the sea—the garden of the republic.

The low lands to the east of the Andes are divided by the table-lands and mountains of Parima and Brazil into three parts of very different aspect—the deserts and pampas of Patagonia and Buenos Ayres, the Silvas or woody basin of the Amazons, and the Llanos or grassy steppes of the Orinoco. The eastern table-lands nowhere exceed 2500 feet of absolute height; the plains are so low and flat, especially at the foot of the Andes, that a rise of 1000 feet in the Atlantic Ocean would submerge more than half the continent of South America.

The system of Parima is a group of mountains scattered over a table-land not more than 2000 feet above the sea, which extends 600 or 700 miles from east to west, between the river Orinoco, the Rio Negro, the Amazons, and the Atlantic Ocean. It is quite unconnected with the Andes, being 80 leagues east from the mountains of New Grenada. It begins 60 or 70 miles from the coast of Venezuela, and ascends by four successive terraces to undulating plains, which come within one or two degrees of the equator, and is twice as long as it is broad.

Seven chains, besides groups of mountains, cross the table-land from west to east, of which the chief is the Sierra del Parima. Beginning at the mouth of the Meta, it crosses the plains of Esmeralda to the borders of Brazil. This chain is not more than 600 feet high, is everywhere escarped, and forms the watershed between the tributaries of the Amazons and those of the Orinoco. The Orinoco rises on the northern side of the Sierra del Parima, and in its circuitous course over the plains of Esmeralda it breaks through that chain and the parallel chain of the Maypures 37 miles to the south: dashing with violence against the transverse shelving rocks and dykes, it forms the magnificent series of rapids and cataracts of Maypures and Atures, from whence the Parima mountains have got the name of the Cordillera of the cataracts of the Orinoco. The chain is of granite, which forms the banks and fills the bed of the river, covered with luxuriant tropical vegetation, especially palm-forests. In the district of the Upper Orinoco, near Charichana, there is a granite rock which emits musical sounds at sunrise, like the notes of an organ, occasioned by the difference of temperature of the external air and that which fills the deep narrow crevices with which the rock is everywhere torn. Something of the same kind occurs at Mount Sinai.^[50]

The other parallel chains that extend over the table-land in Venezuela and Guiana, though not of great height, are very rugged and often crowned with mural ridges; they are separated by flat savannahs, generally barren in the dry season, but after the rains covered with a carpet of emerald-green grass, often six feet high, mixed with flowers. The vegetation in these countries is beautiful beyond imagination: the regions of the Upper Orinoco and Rio Negro, and of almost all the mountains and banks of rivers in Guiana, are clothed with majestic and impenetrable forests, whose moist and hot recesses are the abode of the singular and beautiful race of the OrchideÆ and tangled creepers of many kinds.

Although all the mountains of the system of Parima are wild and rugged, they are not high; the inaccessible peak of the Cerro Duida, which rises insulated 7155 feet above the plain of Esmeralda, is the culminating point, and one of the highest mountains in South America east of the Andes. The fine savannahs of the Rupununi were the country of romance in the days of Queen Elizabeth. South of Pacaraime, near an inlet of the river, the far-famed city of Manoa was supposed to stand, the object of the unfortunate expedition of Sir Walter Raleigh; about 11 miles south-west of which is situated the lake Amucu, “the Great Lake with golden banks,”—great only during the periodical floods.^[51]

On the southern side of the basin of the river Amazons lies the table-land of Brazil, nowhere more than 2500 feet high, which occupies half that empire, together with part of the Argentine republic and Uruguay Orientale. Its form is a triangle, whose apex is at the confluence of the rivers Mamore and Beni, and its base extends, near the shore of the Atlantic, from the mouth of the Rio de la Plata to within three degrees of the equator. It is difficult to define the limits of this vast territory, but some idea may be formed of it by following the direction of the rapids and cataracts of the rivers descending from it to the plains around. Thus, a line drawn from the fall of the river of the Tocantins, in 3° 30' S. latitude, to the cataracts of the Madeira, in the eighth degree of south latitude, will nearly mark its northern boundary; from thence the line would run S.W. to the junction of the Mamore and Beni; then turning to the S.E. along the ridges of mountains called the Cordillera Geral, and Sierra Parecis, it would proceed south to the cataract of the ParanÁ, called the Sete Quedas, in 24° 30' S. lat.; and lastly from thence, by the great falls of the river Iguassu, to the Morro de Santa Martha, in lat. 28° 40', south of the island of St. Catherine.

Chains of mountains, nearly parallel, extend from south-west to north-east, 700 miles along the base of the triangle, with a breadth of about 400 miles. Of these, the Sierra de Mar, or the “coast-chain,” reaches from the river Uruguay to Cape San Roque, never more distant than 20 miles from the Atlantic, except to the south of the bay of Santos, where it is 80. Offsets diverge to the right and left; the granitic peaks of the Corcovado and Tejuco, which form such picturesque objects in that most magnificent of panoramas the bay of Rio de Janeiro, are the ends of one. The parallel chain of EspenhaÇo, beginning near the town of San Paolo, and the continuous chains of the Serro Frio, and forming the western boundary of the basin of the Rio San Francisco, is the highest in Brazil, one of its mountains, Itambe, being 8426 feet above the sea. All the mountains in Brazil have a general tendency from S.W. to N.E., except the transverse chain of the Sierra dos Vertentes, which begins 60 miles south of Villa Rica, and runs in a tortuous line to its termination near the junction of the Mamore and Beni. It forms the watershed of the tributaries of the San Francisco and Amazons on the north, and those of the Rio de la Plata on the south; its greatest height is 3500 feet above the sea: its western part, the Sierra Parecis, is merely a succession of detached hills. This chain, the coast-chain of Venezuela, and the mountains of Parima, are the only ranges in the continent of America that do not entirely, or in some degree, lie in the direction of the meridians.

Magnificent forests of tall trees, bound together by tangled creeping and parasitical plants, clothe the declivities of the mountains and line the borders of the Brazilian rivers, where the soil is rich and the verdure brilliant. Many of the plains on the table-land bear a coarse nutritious grass after the rains only, others forests of dwarf trees; but vast undulating tracts are always verdant with excellent pasture intermixed with fields of corn: some parts are bare sand and rolled quartz, and the Campos Parecis, north of the Sierre dos Vertentes, in the province of Matto Grosso, is a sandy desert of unknown extent, similar to the Great Gobi on the table-land of Tibet.