Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America Volume Iii Part 12

In the group of Anahuac, from lat.i.tude 18 degrees 59 minutes to 19 degrees 12 minutes (Popocatepetl or the Great Volcano of Mexico, and Peak of Orizaba). If we consider the maritime Alps or mountains of California and New Norfolk, either as a continuation of the western chain of Mexico, that of Sonora, or as being linked by spurs to the central chain, that of the Rocky Mountains, we may add to the three preceding groups:

The group of Russian America, from lat.i.tude 60 to 70 degrees (Mount Saint Elias). Over an extent of 63 degrees of lat.i.tude, I know only twelve summits of the Andes which reach the height of 2600 toises, and consequently exceed by 140 toises, the height of Mont Blanc. Only three of these twelve summits are situated north of the isthmus of Panama.

2. INSULATED GROUP OF THE SNOWY MOUNTAINS OF SANTA MARTA.

In the enumeration of the different systems of mountains, I place this group before the littoral chain of Venezuela, though the latter, being a northern prolongation of the Cordillera of Cundinamarca, is immediately linked with the chain of the Andes. The Sierra Nevado of Santa Marta is encompa.s.sed within two divergent branches of the Andes, that of Bogota, and that of the isthmus of Panama. It rises abruptly like a fortified castle, amidst the plains extending from the gulf of Darien, by the mouth of the Magdalena, to the lake of Maracaybo. The old geographers erroneously considered this insulated group of mountains covered with eternal snow, as the extremity of the high Cordilleras of Chita and Pamplona. The loftiest ridge of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is only three or four leagues in length from east to west; it is bounded (at nine leagues distance from the coast) by the meridians of the capes of San Diego and San Augustin. The culminant points, called El Picacho and Horqueta, are near the western border of the group; they are entirely separated from the peak of San Lorenzo, also covered with eternal snow, but only four leagues distant from the port of Santa Marta, towards the south-east. I saw this latter peak from the heights that surrounded the village of Turbaco, south of Carthagena. No precise measurement has. .h.i.therto given us the height of the Sierra Nevada, which Dampier affirms to be one of the highest mountains of the northern hemisphere. Calculations founded on the maximum of distance at which the group is discerned at sea, give a height of more than 3004 toises. That the group of the mountains of Santa Marta is insulated is proved by the hot climate of the lands (tierras calientes) that surround it. Low ridges and a succession of hills indicate, perhaps, an ancient connection between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta on one side, by the Alto de las Minas, with the phonolitic and granitic rocks of the Penon and Banca, and on the other, by the Sierra de Perija, with the mountains of Chiliguana and Ocana, which are the spurs of the eastern chain of the Andes of New Grenada. In this latter chain, the febrifuge species of cinchona (corollis hirsutis, staminibus inclusis) are found in the Sierra Nevada de Merida; but the real cinchona, the most northern of South America, is found in the temperate region of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

3. LITTORAL CHAIN OF VENEZUELA.

This is the system of mountains the configuration and direction of which have excited so powerful an influence on the cultivation and commerce of the ancient Capitania General of Venezuela. It bears different names, as the mountains of Coro, of Caracas, of the Bergantin, of Barcelona, of c.u.mana, and of Paria; but all these names belong to the same chain, of which the northern part runs along the coast of the Caribbean Sea. This system of mountains, which is 160 leagues long,* is a prolongation of the eastern Cordillera of the Andes of Cundinamarca. (* It is more than double the length of the Pyrenees, from Cape Creux to the point of Figuera.) There is an immediate connection of the littoral chain with the Andes, like that of the Pyrenees with the mountains of Asturia and Galicia; it is not the effect of transversal ridges, like the connection of the Pyrenees with the Swiss Alps, by the Black Mountain and the Cevennes. The points of junction are between Truxillo and the lake of Valencia.

The eastern chain of New Grenada stretches north-east by the Sierra Nevada de Merida, as well as by the four Paramos of Timotes, Niquitao, Bocono and Las Rosas, of which the absolute height cannot be less than from 1400 to 1600 toises. After the Paramo of Las Rosas, which is more elevated than the two preceding, there is a great depression, and we no longer see a distinct chain or ridge, but merely hills, and high table-lands surrounding the towns of Tocuyo and Barquisimeto. We know not the height even of Cerro del Altar, between Tocuyo and Caranacatu; but we know by recent measures that the most inhabited spots are from 300 to 350 toises above sea-level. The limits of the mountainous land between Tocuyo and the valleys of Aragua are, the plains of San Carlos on the south, and the Rio Tocuyo on the north; the Rio Siquisique flows into that river. From the Cerro del Altar on the north-east towards Guigue and Valencia, succeed, as culminant points, the mountains of Santa Maria (between Buria and Nirgua); then the Picacho de Nirgua, supposed to be 600 toises high; and finally Las Palomeras and El Torito (between Valencia and Nirgua). The line of water-part.i.tion runs from west to east, from Quibor to the lofty savannahs of London, near Santa Rosa. The waters flow on the north, towards the Golfo triste of the Caribbean Sea; and on the south, towards the basins of the Apure and the Orinoco. The whole of this mountainous country, by which the littoral chain of Caracas is linked to the Cordilleras of Cundinamarca, was celebrated in Europe in the middle of the nineteenth century; for that part of the territory formed of gneiss-granite, and lying between the Rio Tocuyo and the Rio Yaracui, contains the auriferous veins of Buria, and the copper-mine of Aroa which is worked at the present day. If, across the knot of the mountains of Barquisimeto, we trace the meridians of Aroa, Nirgua and San Carlos, we find that on the north-west that knot is linked with the Sierra de Coro, and on the north-east with the mountains of Capadare, Porto Cabello and the Villa de Cura. It may be said to form the eastern wall of that vast circular depression of which the lake of Maracaybo is the centre and which is bounded on the south and west by the mountains of Merida, Ocana, Perija and Santa Marta.

The littoral chain of Venezuela presents towards the centre and the east the same phenomena of structure as those observed in the Andes of Peru and New Grenada; namely, the division into several parallel ranges and the frequency of longitudinal basins or valleys. But the irruptions of the Caribbean Sea having apparently overwhelmed, at a very remote period, a part of the mountains of the sh.o.r.e, the ranges or partial chains are interrupted and some basins have become oceanic gulfs. To comprehend the Cordillera of Venezuela in ma.s.s we must carefully study the direction and windings of the coast from Punta Tucacas (west of Porto Cabello) as far as Punta de la Galera of the island of Trinidad. That island, those of Los Testigos, Marguerita and Tortuga const.i.tute, with the mica-slates of the peninsula of Araya, one and the same system of mountains. The granitic rocks which appear between Buria, Duaca and Aroa cross the valley of the Rio Yaracui and draw near the sh.o.r.e, whence they extend, like a continuous wall, from Porto Cabello to Cape Codera. This prolongation forms the northern chain of the Cordillera of Venezuela and is traversed in going from south to north, either from Valencia and the valleys of Aragua, to Burburata and Turiamo, or from Caracas to La Guayra. Hot springs*

issue from those mountains (* The other hot springs of the Cordillera of the sh.o.r.e are those of San Juan, Provisor, Brigantin, the gulf of Cariaco, c.u.mucatar and Irapa. MM. Rivero and Boussingault, who visited the thermal waters of Mariara in February, 1823, during their journey from Caracas to Santa Fe de Bogota, found their maximum to be 64 degrees centigrade. I found it at the same season only 59.2 degrees.

Has the great earthquake of the 26th March, 1812, had an influence on the temperature of these springs? The able chemists above mentioned were, like myself, struck with the extreme purity of the hot waters that issue from the primitive rocks of the basin of Aragua. Those of Onoto, which flow at the height of 360 toises above the level of the sea, have no smell of sulphuretted hydrogen; they are without taste, and cannot be precipitated, either by nitrate of silver or any other re-agent. When evaporated they have an inappreciable residue which consists of a little silica and a trace of alkali; their temperature is only 44.5 degrees, and the bubbles of air which are disengaged at intervals are at Onoto, as well as in the thermal waters of Mariara, pure nitrogen. The waters of Mariara (244 toises) have a faint smell of sulphuretted hydrogen; they leave, by evaporation, a slight residuum, that yields carbonic acid, sulphuric acid, soda, magnesia and lime. The quant.i.ties are so small that the water is altogether without taste. In the course of my journey I found only the springs of c.u.mangillas hotter than the thermal waters of Las Trincheras: they are situated on the south of Porto Cabello. The waters of Comangillas are at the height of 1040 toises and are alike remarkable for their purity and their temperature of 96.3 degrees centigrade.), those of Las Trincheras (90.4 degrees) on its southern slope and those of Onoto and Mariara on its southern slope. The former issue from a granite with large grains, very regularly stratified; the latter from a rock of gneiss. What especially characterizes the northern chain is a summit which is not only the loftiest of the system of the mountains of Venezuela, but of all South America, on the east of the Andes. The eastern summit of the Silla of Caracas, according to my barometric measurement made in 1800, is 1350 toises high,* (* The Silla of Caracas is only 80 toises lower than the Canigou in the Pyrenees.) and notwithstanding the commotion which took place on the Silla during the great earthquake of Caracas, that mountain did not sink 50 or 60 toises, as some North American journals a.s.serted. Four or five leagues south of the northern chain (that of Mariara, La Silla and Cape Codera) the mountains of Guiripa, Oc.u.mare and Panaquire form the southern chain of the coast, which stretches in a parallel direction from Guigue to the mouth of the Rio Tuy, by the Guesta of Yusma and the Guacimo. The lat.i.tudes of the Villa de Cura and San Juan, so erroneously marked on our maps, enabled me to ascertain the mean breadth of the whole Cordillera of Venezuela. Ten or twelve leagues may be reckoned as the distance from the descent of the northern chain which bounds the Caribbean Sea, to the descent of the southern chain bounding the immense basin of the Llanos. This latter chain, which also bears the name of the Inland Mountains, is much lower than the northern chain; and I can hardly believe that the Sierra de Guayraima attains the height of 1200 toises.

The two partial chains, that of the interior, and that which runs along the coast, are linked by a ridge or knot of mountains known by the names of Altos de las Cocuyzas (845 toises) and the Higuerote (835 toises between Los Teques and La Victoria) in longitude 69 degrees 30 minutes and 69 degrees 50 minutes. On the west of this ridge lies the enclosed basin* of the lake of Valencia or the Valles de Aragua (*

This basin contains a small system of inland rivers which do not communicate with the ocean. The southern chain of the litteral Cordillera of Venezuela is so depressed on the south-west that the Rio Pao is separated from the tributary streams of the lake of Tacarigua or Valencia. Towards the east the Rio Tuy, which takes its rise on the western declivity of the knot of mountains of Las Cocuyzas, appears at first to empty itself into the valleys of Aragua; but hills of calcareous tufa, forming a ridge between Consejo and Victoria, force it to take its course south-east.); and on the east the basin of Caracas and of the Rio Tuy. The bottom of the first-mentioned basins is between 220 and 250 toises high; the bottom of the latter is 460 toises above the level of the Caribbean Sea. It follows from these measures that the most western of the two longitudinal valleys enclosed by the littoral Cordillera is the deepest; while in the plains near the Apure and the Orinoco the declivity is from west to east; but we must not forget that the peculiar disposition of the bottom of the two basins, which are bounded by two parallel chains, is a local phenomenon altogether separate from the causes on which the general structure of the country depends. The eastern basin of the Cordillera of Venezuela is not shut up like the basin of Valencia. It is in the knot of the mountains of Las Cocuyzas, and of Higuerote, that the Serrania de los Teques and Oripoto, stretching eastward, form two valleys, those of the Rio Guayre and Rio Tuy; the former contains the town of Caracas and both unite below the Caurimare. The Rio Tuy runs through the rest of the basin, from west to east, as far as its mouth which is situated on the north of the mountains of Panaquire.

Cape Codera seems to terminate the northern range of the littoral mountains of Venezuela but this termination is only apparent. The coast forms a vast nook, thirty-five sea leagues in length, at the bottom of which is the mouth of the Rio Unare and the road of Nueva Barcelona. Stretching first from west to east, in the parallel of 10 degrees 37 minutes, this coast recedes at the parallel 10 degrees 6 minutes, and resumes its original direction (10 degrees 37 minutes to 10 degrees 44 minutes) from the western extremity of the peninsula of Araya to the eastern extremities of Montana de Paria and the island of Trinidad. From this dissection of the coast it follows that the range of mountains bordering the sh.o.r.e of the provinces of Caracas and Barcelona, between the meridian 66 degrees 32 minutes and 68 degrees 29 minutes (which I saw on the south of the bay of Higuerote and on the north of the Llanos of Pao and Cachipo), must be considered as the continuation of the southern chain of Venezuela and as being linked on the west with the Sierras de Panaquire and Oc.u.mare. It may therefore be said that between Cape Codera and Cariaco the inland chain itself forms the coast. This range of very low mountains, often interrupted from the mouth of the Rio Tuy to that of the Rio Neveri, rises abruptly on the east of Nueva Barcelona, first in the rocky island of Chimanas, and then in the Cerro del Bergantin, elevated probably more than 800 toises, but of which the astronomical position and the precise height are yet alike unknown. On the meridian of c.u.mana the northern chain (that of Cape Codera and the Silla of Caracas) again appears. The micaceous slate of the peninsula of Araya and Maniquarez joins by the ridge or knot of mountains of Meapire the southern chain, that of Panaquire the Bergantin, Turimiquiri, Caripe and Guacharo.

This ridge, not more than 200 toises of absolute height, has, in the ancient revolutions of our planet, prevented the irruption of the ocean, and the union of the gulfs of Paria and Cariaco. On the west of Cape Codera the northern chain, composed of primitive granitic rocks, presents the loftiest summits of the whole Cordillera of Venezuela; but the culminant points east of that cape are composed in the southern chain of secondary calcareous rocks. We have seen above that the peak of Turimiquiri, at the back of the Cocollar, is 1050 toises, while the bottoms of the high valleys of the convent of Caripe and of Guardia de San Augustin are 412 and 533 toises of absolute height. On the east of the ridge of Meapire the southern chain sinks abruptly towards the Rio Arco and the Guarapiche; but, on quitting the main land, we again see it rising on the southern coast of the island of Trinidad which is but a detached portion of the continent, and of which the northern side unquestionably presents the vestiges of the northern chain of Venezuela, that is, of the Montana de Paria (the Paradise of Christopher Columbus), the peninsula of Araya and the Silla of Caracas. The observations of lat.i.tude I made at the Villa de Cura (10 degrees 2 minutes 47 seconds), the farm of Cocollar (10 degrees 9 minutes 37 seconds) and the convent of Caripe (10 degrees 10 minutes 14 seconds), compared with the more anciently known position of the south coast of Trinidad (lat.i.tude 10 degrees 6 minutes), prove that the southern chain, south of the basins of Valencia and of Tuy*

(* The bottom of the first of these four basins bounded by parallel chains is from 230 to 460 toises above, and that of the two latter from 30 to 40 toises below the present sea-level. Hot springs gush from the bottom of the gulf of the basin of Cariaco, as from the bottom of the basin of Valencia on the continent.) and of the gulfs of Cariaco and Paria, is still more uniform in the direction from west to east than the northern chain from Porto Cabello to Punta Galera. It is highly important to know the southern limit of the littoral Cordillera of Venezuela because it determines the parallel at which the Llanos or the savannahs of Caracas, Barcelona and c.u.mana begin. On some well-known maps we find erroneously marked between the meridians of Caracas and c.u.mana two Cordilleras stretching from north to south, as far as lat.i.tude 8 3/4 degrees, under the names of Cerros de Alta Gracia and del Bergantin, thus describing as mountainous a territory of 25 leagues broad, where we should seek in vain a hillock of a few feet in height.

Turning to the island of Marguerita, composed, like the peninsula of Araya, of micaceous slate, and anciently linked with that peninsula by the Morro de Chacopata and the islands of Coche and Cubagua, we seem to recognize in the two mountainous groups of Macanao and La Vega de San Juan traces of a third coast-chain of the Cordillera of Venezuela.

Do these two groups of Marguerita, of which the most westerly is above 600 toises high, belong to a submarine chain stretching by the isle of Tortuga, towards the Sierra de Santa Lucia de Coro, on the parallel of 11 degrees? Must we admit that in lat.i.tude 11 1/4 and 12 1/2 degrees a fourth chain, the most northerly of all, formerly stretched out in the direction of the island of Hermanos, by Blanquilla, Los Roques, Orchila, Aves, Buen Ayre, Curacao and Oruba, towards Cape Chichivacoa?

These important problems can only be solved when the chain of islands parallel with the coast has been properly examined. It must not be forgotten that a great irruption of the ocean appears to have taken place between Trinidad and Grenada,* and that no where else in the long series of the Lesser Antilles are two neighbouring islands so far removed from each other. (* It is affirmed that the island of Trinidad is traversed in the northern part by a chain of primitive slate, and that Grenada furnishes basalt. It would be important to examine of what rock the island of Tobago is composed; it appeared to me of dazzling whiteness; and on what point, in going from Trinidad northward, the trachytic and trappean system of the Lesser Antilles begins.) We observe the effect of the rotatory current in the direction of the coast of Trinidad, as in the coasts of the provinces of c.u.mana and Caracas, between Cape Paria and Punta Araya and between Cape Codera and Porto Cabello. If a part of the continent has been overwhelmed by the ocean on the north of the peninsula of Araya it is probable that the enormous shoal which surrounds Cubagua, Coche the island of Marguerita, Los Frailes, La Sola and the Testigos marks the extent and outline of the submerged land. This shoal or placer, which is of the extent of 200 square leagues, is well known only to the tribe of the Guayqueries; it is frequented by these Indians on account of its abundant fishery in calm weather. The Gran Placer is believed to be separated only by some ca.n.a.ls or deep furrows of the bank of Grenada from the sand-bank that extends like a narrow d.y.k.e from Tobago to Grenada, and which is known by the lowering of the temperature of the water and from the sand-banks of Los Roques and Aves. The Guayquerie Indians and, generally speaking, all the inhabitants of the coast of c.u.mana and Barcelona, are imbued with an idea that the water of the shoals of Marguerita and the Testigos diminishes from year to year; they believe that, in the lapse of ages, the Morro do Chacopata on the peninsula of Araya will be joined by a neck of land to the islands of Lobos and Coche. The partial retreat of the waters on the coast of c.u.mana is undeniable and the bottom of the sea has been upheaved at various times by earthquakes; but these local phenomena, which it is so difficult to account for by the action of volcanic force, the changes in the direction of currents, and the consequent swelling of the waters, are very different from the effects manifested at once over the s.p.a.ce of several hundred square leagues.

4. GROUP OF THE MOUNTAINS OF PARIME.

It is essential to mineralogical geography to designate by one name all the mountains that form one system. To attain this end, a denomination belonging to a partial group only may be extended over the whole chain; or a name may be employed which, by reason of its novelty, is not likely to give rise to h.o.m.ogenic mistakes.

Mountaineers designate every group by a special denomination; and a chain is generally considered as forming a whole only when it is seen from afar bounding the horizon of the plains. We find the name of snowy mountains (Himalaya, Imaus) repeated in every zone, white (Alpes, Alb), black and blue. The greater part of the Sierra Parime is, as it were, edged round by the Orinoco. I have, however, avoided a denomination having reference to this circ.u.mstance, because the group of mountains to which I am about to direct attention extends far beyond the banks of the Orinoco. It stretches south-east, towards the banks of the Rio Negro and the Rio Branco, to the parallel of 1 1/2 degrees north lat.i.tude. The geographical name of Parime has the advantage of reviving recollections of the fable of El Dorado, and the lofty mountains which, in the sixteenth century, were supposed to surround the lake Rupunuwini, or the Laguna de Parime. The missionaries of the Orinoco still give the name of Parime to the whole of the vast mountainous country comprehended between the sources of the Erevato, the Orinoco, the Caroni, the Rio Parime* (a tributary of the Rio Branco) and the Rupunuri or Rupunuwini, a tributary of the Rio Essequibo. (* The Rio Parime, after receiving the waters of the Uraricuera, joins the Tacutu, and forms, near the fort of San Joacquim, the Rio Branco, one of the tributary streams of the Rio Negro.) This country is one of the least known parts of South America and is covered with thick forests and savannahs; it is inhabited by independent Indians and is intersected by rivers of dangerous navigation, owing to the frequency of shoals and cataracts.

The system of the mountains of Parime separates the plains of the Lower Orinoco from those of the Rio Negro and the Amazon; it occupies a territory of trapezoidal form, comprehended between the parallels of 3 and 8 degrees, and the meridians of 61 and 70 1/2 degrees. I here indicate only the elements of the loftiest group, for we shall soon see that towards south-east the mountainous country, in lowering, draws near the equator, as well as to French and Portuguese Guiana.

The Sierra Parime extends most in the direction north 85 degrees west and the partial chains into which it separates on the westward generally follow the same direction. It is less a Cordillera or a continuous chain in the sense given to those denominations when applied to the Andes and Caucasus than an irregular grouping of mountains separated the one from the other by plains and savannahs. I visited the northern, western and southern parts of the Sierra Parime, which is remarkable by its position and its extent of more than 25,000 square leagues. From the confluence of the Apure, as far as the delta of the Orinoco, it is uniformly three or four leagues removed from the right bank of the great river; only some rocks of gneiss-granite, amphibolic slate and greenstone advance as far as the bed of the Orinoco and create the rapids of Torno and of La Boca del Infierno.*

(* To this series of advanced rocks also belong those which pierce the soil between the Rio Aquire and the Rio Barima; the granitic and amphibolic rocks of the Vieja Guayana and of the town of Angostura; the Cerro de Mono on the south-east of Muitaco or Real Corono; the Cerro of Taramuto near the Alta Gracia, etc.) I shall name successively, from north-north-east to south-south-west, the different chains seen by M. Bonpland and myself as we approached the equator and the river Amazon. First. The most northern chain of the whole system of the mountains of Parime appeared to us to be that which stretches (lat.i.tude 7 degrees 50 minutes) from the Rio Arui, in the meridian of the rapids of Camiseta, at the back of the town of Angostura, towards the great cataracts of the Rio Carony and the sources of the Imataca.

In the missions of the Catalonian Capuchins this chain, which is not 300 toises high, separates the tributary streams of the Orinoco and those of the Rio Cuyuni, between the town of Upata, Cupapui and Santa Marta. Westward of the meridian of the rapids of Camiseta (longitude 67 degrees 10 minutes) the high mountains in the basin of the Rio Caura only commence at 7 degrees 20 minutes of lat.i.tude, on the south of the mission of San Luis Guaraguaraico, where they occasion the rapids of Mura. This chain stretches westward by the sources of the Rio Cuchivero, the Cerros del Mato, the Cerbatana and Maniapure, as far as Tepupano, a group of strangely-formed granitic rocks surrounding the Encaramada. The culminant points of this chain (lat.i.tude 7 degrees 10 minutes to 7 degrees 28 minutes) are, according to the information I gathered from the Indians, situated near the sources of Cano de la Tortuga. In the chain of the Encaramada there are some traces of gold. This chain is also celebrated in the mythology of the Tamanacs; for the painted rocks it contains are a.s.sociated with ancient local traditions. The Orinoco changes its direction at the confluence of the Apure, breaking a part of the chain of the Encaramada. The latter mountains and scattered rocks in the plain of the Capuchino and on the north of Cabruta may be considered either as the vestiges of a destroyed spur or (on the hypothesis of the igneous origin of granite) as partial eruptions and upheavings. I shall not here discuss the question whether the most northerly chain, that of Angostura and of the great fall of Carony, be a continuation of the chain of Encaramada. Third. In navigating the Orinoco from north to south we observe, alternately, on the east, small plains and chains of mountains of which we cannot distinguish the profiles, that is, the sections perpendicular to their longitudinal axes. From the mission of the Encaramada to the mouth of the Rio Qama I counted seven recurrences of this alternation of savannahs and high mountains.

First, on the south of the isle Cucuruparu rises the chain of Chaviripe (lat.i.tude 7 degrees 10 minutes); it stretches, inclining towards the south (lat.i.tude 6 degrees 20 minutes to 6 degrees 40 minutes), by the Cerros del Corozal, the Amoco, and the Murcielago, as far as the Erevato, a tributary of the Caura. It there forms the rapids of Paru and is linked with the summits of Matacuna. Fourth. The chain of Chaviripe is succeeded by that of the Baraguan (lat.i.tude 6 degrees 50 minutes to 7 degrees 5 minutes), celebrated for the strait of the Orinoco, to which it gives its name. The Saraguaca, or mountain of Uruana, composed of detached blocks of granite, may be regarded as a northern spur of the chain of the Baraguan, stretching south-west towards Siamacu and the mountains (lat.i.tude 5 degrees 50 minutes) that separate the sources of the Erevato and the Caura from those of the Ventuari. Fifth. The chain of Carichana and of Paruaci (lat.i.tude 6 degrees 25 minutes), wild in aspect, but surrounded by charming meadows. Piles of granite crowned with trees and insulated rocks of prismatic form (the Mogote of Cocuyza and the Marimaruta or Castillito of the Jesuits) belong to this chain. Sixth. On the western bank of the Orinoco, which is low and flat, the Peak of Uniana rises abruptly more than 3000 feet high. The spurs (lat.i.tude 5 degrees 35 minutes to 5 degrees 40 minutes) which this peak sends eastward are crossed by the Orinoco in the first Great Cataract (that of Mapura or the Atures); further on they unite together and, rising in a chain, stretch towards the sources of the Cataniapo, the rapids of Ventuari, situated on the north of the confluence of the Asisi (lat.i.tude 5 degrees 10 minutes) and the Cerro Cunevo. Seventh. Five leagues south of the Atures is the chain of Quittuna, or of Maypures (lat.i.tude 15 degrees 13 minutes), which forms the bar of the Second Great Cataract.

None of those lofty summits are situated on the west of the Orinoco; on the east of that river rises the Cunavami, the truncated peak of Calitamini and the Jujamari, to which Father Gili attributes an extraordinary height. Eighth. The last chain of the south-west part of the Sierra Parime is separated by woody plains from the chain of Maypures; it is the chain of the Cerros de Sipapo (lat.i.tude 4 degrees 50 minutes); an enormous wall behind which the powerful chief of the Guaypunabi Indians intrenched himself during the expedition of Solano.

The chain of Sipapo may be considered as the beginning of the range of lofty mountains which bound, at the distance of some leagues, the right bank of the Orinoco, where that river runs from south-east to north-west, between the mouth of the Ventuari, the Jao and the Padamo (lat.i.tude 3 degrees 15 minutes). In ascending the Orinoco, above the cataract of Maypures, we find, long before we reach the point where it turns, near San Fernando del Atabapo, the mountains disappearing from the bed of the river, and from the mouth of the Zama there are only insulated rocks in the plains. The chain of Sipapo forms the south-west limit of the system of mountains of Parime, between 70 1/2 and 68 degrees of longitude. Modern geologists have observed that the culminant points of a group are less frequently found at its centre than towards one of its extremities, preceding, and announcing in some sort, a great depression* of the chain. (* As seen in Mont Blanc and Chimborazo.) This phenomenon is again observed in the group of the Parime, the loftiest summits of which, the Duida and the Maraguaca, are in the most southerly range of mountains, where the plains of the Ca.s.siquiare and the Rio Negro begin.

These plains or savannahs which are covered with forests only in the vicinity of the rivers do not, however, exhibit the same uniform continuity as the Llanos of the Lower Orinoco, of the Meta and of Buenos Ayres. They are interrupted by groups of hills (Cerros de Daribapa) and by insulated rocks of grotesque form which pierce the soil and from a distance fix the attention of the traveller. These granitic and often stratified ma.s.ses resemble the ruins of pillars or edifices. The same force which upheaved the whole group of the Sierra Parime has acted here and there in the plains as far as beyond the equator. The existence of these steeps and sporadic hills renders it difficult to determine the precise limits of a system in which the mountains are not longitudinally ranged as in a vein. As we advance towards the frontier of the Portuguese province of the Rio Negro the high rocks become more rare and we no longer find the shelves or d.y.k.es of gneiss-granite which cause rapids and cataracts in the rivers.

Such is the surface of the soil between 68 1/2 and 70 1/2 degrees of longitude, between the meridian of the bifurcation of the Orinoco and that of San Fernando de Atabapo; further on, westward of the Upper Rio Negro, towards the source of that river, and its tributary streams the Xie and the Uaupes (lat.i.tude 1 to 2 1/4 degrees, longitude 72 to 74 degrees) lies a small mountainous tableland, in which Indian traditions place a Laguna de oro, that is, a lake surrounded with beds of auriferous earth.* (* According to the journals of Acunha and Fritz the Manao Indians (Manoas) obtained from the banks of the Yquiari (Iguiare or Iguare) gold of which they made thin plates. The ma.n.u.script notes of Don Apollinario also mention the gold of the Rio Uaupes. La Condamine, Voyage a l'Amazone. We must not confound the Laguna de Oro, which is said to be found in going up the Uaupes (north lat.i.tude 0 degrees 40 minutes) with another gold lake (south lat.i.tude 1 degree 10 minutes) which La Condamine calls Marahi or Morachi (water), and which is merely a tract often inundated between the sources of the Jurubech (Urubaxi) and the Rio Marahi, a tributary stream of the Caqueta.) At Maroa, the most westerly mission of the Rio Negro, the Indians a.s.sured me that that river as well as the Inirida (a tributary of the Guavare) rises at the distance of five days'

march, in a country bristled with hills and rocks. The natives of San Marcellino speak of a Sierra Tunuhy, nearly thirty leagues west of their village, between the Xie and the Icanna. La Condamine learned also from the Indians of the Amazon that the Quiquiari comes from a country of mountains and mines. Now, the Iquiari is placed by the French astronomer between the equator and the mouth of the Xie (Ijie), which identifies it with the Iguiare that falls into the Icanna. We cannot advance in the geologic knowledge of America without having continually recourse to the researches of comparative geography. The small system of mountains, which we may provisionally call that of the sources of the Rio Negro and the Uaupes, and the culminant points of which are not probably more than 100 or 120 toises high, appears to extend southward to the basin of Rio Yupura, where rocky ridges form the cataracts of the Rio de los Enganos and the Salto Grande de Yupura (south lat.i.tude 0 degrees 40 minutes to north lat.i.tude 0 degrees 28 minutes), and the basin of the Upper Guaviare towards the west. We find in the course of this river, from 60 to 70 leagues west of San Fernando del Atabapo, two walls of rocks bounding the strait (nearly 3 degrees 10 minutes north lat.i.tude and 73 3/4 degrees longitude) where father Maiella terminated his excursion. That missionary told me that, in going up the Guaviare, he perceived near the strait (angostura) a chain of mountains bounding the horizon on the south. It is not known whether those mountains traverse the Guaviare more to the west, and join the spurs which advance from the eastern Cordillera of New Grenada, between the Rio Umadea and the Rio Ariari, in the direction of the savannahs of San Juan de los Llanos. I doubt the existence of this junction. If it really existed, the plains of the Lower Orinoco would communicate with those of the Amazon only by a very narrow land-strait, on the east of the mountainous country which surrounds the source of the Rio Negro: but it is more probable that this mountainous country (a small system of mountains, geognostically dependent on the Sierra Parime) forms as it were an island in the Llanos of Guaviare and Yupura. Father Pugnet, Princ.i.p.al of the Franciscan convent at Popayan, a.s.sured me, that when he went from the missions settled on the Rio Caguan to Aramo, a village situated on the Rio Guayavero, he found only treeless savannahs, extending as far as the eye could reach. The chain of mountains placed by several modern geographers, between the Meta and the Vichada, and which appears to link the Andes of New Grenada with the Sierra Parime, is altogether imaginary.

We have now examined the prolongation of the Sierra Parime on the west, towards the source of the Rio Negro: it remains for us to follow the same group in its eastern direction. The mountains of the Upper Orinoco, eastward of the Raudal of the Guaharibos (north lat.i.tude 1 degree 15 minutes longitude 67 degrees 38 minutes), join the chain of Pacaraina, which divides the waters of the Carony and the Rio Branco, and of which the micaceous schist, resplendent with silvery l.u.s.tre, figures so conspicuously in Raleigh's El Dorado. The part of that chain containing the sources of the Orinoco has not yet been explored; but its prolongation more to the east, between the meridian of the military post of Guirior and the Rupunuri, a tributary of the Essequibo, is known to me through the travels of the Spaniards Antonio Santos and Nicolas Rodriguez, and also by the geodesic labours of two Portuguese, Pontes and Almeida. Two portages but little frequented*

are situated between the Rio Branco and the Rio Essequibo, south of the chain of Pacaraina; they shorten the land-road leading from the Villa del Rio Negro to Dutch Guiana. (* The portages of Sarauru and the lake Amucu.) On the contrary, the portage between the basin of the Rio Branco and that of the Carony crosses the summit of the chain of Pacaraina. On the northern slope of this chain rises the Anocapra, a tributary of the Paraguamusi or Paravamusi; and on the southern slope, the Araicuque, which, with the Uraricapara, forms the famous Valley of Inundations, above the destroyed mission of Santa Rosa (lat.i.tude 3 degrees 46 minutes, longitude 65 degrees 10 minutes). The princ.i.p.al Cordillera, which appears of little breadth, stretches on a length of 80 leagues, from the portage of Anocapra (longitude 65 degrees 35 minutes) to the left bank of the Rupunuri (longitude 61 degrees 50 minutes), following the parallels of 4 degrees 4 minutes and 4 degrees 12 minutes. We there distinguish from west to east the mountains of Pacaraina, Tipique, Tauyana, among which rises the Rio Parime (a tributary of the Uraricuera), Tubachi, Christaux (lat.i.tude 3 degrees 56 minutes, longitude 62 degrees 52 minutes) and Canopiri. The Spanish traveller, Rodriguez, marks the eastern part of the chain by the name of Quimiropaca; but preferring to adopt general names, I continue to give the name of Pacaraina to the whole of this Cordillera which links the mountains of the Orinoco to the interior of Dutch and French Guiana, and which Raleigh and Keymis made known in Europe at the end of the 16th century. This chain is broken by the Rupunuri and the Essequibo, so that one of their tributary streams, the Tavaricuru, takes its rise on the southern declivity, and the other, the Sibarona, on the northern. On approaching the Essequibo, the mountains are more developed towards the south-east, and extend beyond 2 1/2 degrees north lat.i.tude. From this eastern branch of the chain of Pacaraina the Rio Rupunuri rises near the Cerro Ua.s.sari. On the right bank of the Rio Branco, in a still more southern lat.i.tude (between 1 and 2 degrees north) is a mountainous territory in which the Caritamini, the Padaviri, the Cababuri (Cavaburis) and the Pacimoni take their source, from east to west. This western branch of the mountains of Pacaraina separates the basin of Rio Branco from that of the Upper Orinoco, the sources of which are probably not found east of the meridian of 66 15 minutes: it is linked with the mountains of Unturan and Yumariquin, situated south-east of the mission of Esmeralda. Thence it results that, while on the west of the Ca.s.siquiare, between that river, the Atabapo, and the Rio Negro, we find only vast plains, in which rise some little hills and insulated rocks; real spurs stretch eastward of the Ca.s.siquiare, from north-west to south-east, and form a continued mountainous territory as far as 2 degrees north lat.i.tude. The basin only, or rather the transversal valley of the Rio Branco, forms a kind of gulf, a succession of plains and savannahs (campos) several of which penetrate from south to north, into the mountainous land between the eastern and western branches of the chain of Pacaraina, to the distance of eight leagues north of the parallel of San Joaquin.

We have just examined the southern part of the vast system of the mountains of Parime, between 2 and 4 degrees of lat.i.tude, and between the meridians of the sources of the Orinoco and the Essequibo. The development of this system of mountains northward between the chain of Pacaraina and Rio Cuyuni, and between the meridians 66 and 61 3/4 degrees, is still less known. The only road frequented by white men is that of the river Paragua, which receives the Paraguamusi, near the Guirior. We find indeed, in the journal of Nicolas Rodriguez, that he was constantly obliged to have his canoe carried by men (arrastrando) past the cataracts which intercept the navigation; but we must not forget a circ.u.mstance of which my own experience furnished me with frequent proofs--that the cataracts in this part of South America are often caused only by ridges of rocks which do not form mountains.

Rodriguez names but two between Barceloneta and the mission of San Jose; while the missionaries place more to the east, in 6 degrees lat.i.tude, between the Rio Caroni and the Cuyuni, the Serranias of Usupama and Rinocote. The latter crosses the Mazaruni, and forms thirty-nine cataracts in the Essequibo, from the military post of Arinda (lat.i.tude 5 degrees 30 minutes) to the mouth of Rupunuri.

With respect to the continuation of the system of the mountains of Parime, south-east of the meridian of the Essequibo, the materials are entirely wanting for tracing it with precision. The whole interior of Dutch, French and Portuguese Guiana is a terra incognita; and the astronomical geography of those countries has scarcely made any progress during the s.p.a.ce of thirty years. If the American limits recently fixed between France and Portugal should one day cease to be mere diplomatic illusions and acquire reality in being traced on the territory by means of astronomical observations (as was projected in 1817), this undertaking would lead geographical engineers to that unknown region which, at 3 1/2 degrees west of Cayenne, divides the waters between the coast of Guiana and the Amazon. Till that period, which the political state of Brazil seems to r.e.t.a.r.d, the geognostic table of the group of Parime can only be completed by scattered notions collected in the Portuguese and Dutch colonies. In going from the Ua.s.sari mountains (lat.i.tude 2 degrees 25 minutes, longitude 61 degrees 50 minutes) which form a part of the eastern branch of the Cordillera of Pacaraina, we find towards the east a chain of mountains, called by the missionaries Acaray and Tumucuraque. Those two names are found on our maps between 1/2 and 3 degrees north lat.i.tude. Raleigh first made known, in 1596, the system of the mountains of Parime, between the sources of the Rio Carony and the Essequibo, by the name of Wacarima (Pacarima), and the Jesuits Acunha and Artedia furnished, in 1639, the first precise notions of that part of this system which extends from the meridian of Essequibo to that of Oyapoc. There they place the mountains of Yguaracuru and Paraguaxo, the former of which gives birth to a gold river (Rio de oro), a tributary of the Curupatuba;* (* When we know that in Tamanac gold is called caricuri; in Carib, caricura: in Peruvian, cori (curi), we easily recognize in the names of the mountains and rivers (Yguara-curu, Cura-patuba) which we have just marked, the indication of auriferous soil. Such is the a.n.a.logy of the imported roots in the American tongues, which otherwise differ altogether from each other, that 300 leagues west of the mountain Ygaracuru, on the banks of the Caqueta, Pedro de Ursua heard of the province of Caricuri, rich in gold washings. The Curupatuba falls into the Amazon near the Villa of Monte Alegre, north-east of the mouth of the Rio Topayos.); and according to the a.s.sertion of the natives, subterraneous noises are sometimes heard from the latter. The ridge of this chain of mountains, which runs in a direction south 85 degrees east from the peak of Duida near the Esmeralda (lat.i.tude 3 degrees 19 minutes), to the rapids of the Rio Manaye near Cape Nord (lat.i.tude 1 degree 50 minutes), divides, in the parallel of 2 degrees, the northern sources of the Essequibo, the Maroni and the Oyapoc, from the southern sources of the Rio Trombetas, Curupatuba and Paru. The most southern spurs of this chain approach nearer to the Amazon, at the distance of fifteen leagues.

These are the first heights which we perceived after having left Xeberos and the mouth of the Huallaga. They are constantly seen in navigating from the mouth of the Rio Topayo towards that of Paru, from the town of Santarem to Almeirim. The peak Tripoupou is nearly in the meridian of the former of those towns and is celebrated among the Indians of Upper Maroni. It is said that farther eastward, at Melgaco, the Serras do Velho and do Paru are still distinguished in the horizon. The real boundaries of this series of sources of the Rio Trombetas are better known southward than northward, where a mountainous country appears to advance in Dutch and French Guiana, as far as within twenty to twenty-five leagues of the coast. The numerous cataracts of the rivers of Surinam, Maroni and Oyapoc, prove the extent and the prolongation of rocky ridges; but in those regions nothing indicates the existence of continued plains or table-lands some hundred toises high, fitted for the cultivation of the plants of the temperate zone.

The system of the mountains of Parime surpa.s.ses in extent nineteen times that of the whole of Switzerland. Even considering the mountainous group of the sources of the Rio Negro and the Xie as independent or insulated amidst the plains, we still find the Sierra Parime (between Maypures and the sources of the Oyapoc) to be 340 leagues in length; its greatest breadth (the rocks of Imataca, near the delta of the Orinoco, at the sources of the Rio Paru) is 140 leagues. In the group of the Parime, as well as in the group of the mountains of central Asia, between the Himalaya and the Altai, the partial chains are often interrupted and have no uniform parallelism.

Towards the south-west, however (between the strait of Baraguan, the mouth of the Rio Zama and the Esmeralda), the line of the mountains is generally in the direction of north 70 degrees west. Such is also the position of a distant coast, that of Portuguese, French, Dutch and English Guiana, from Cape North to the mouth of the Orinoco; such is the mean direction of the course of the Rio Negro and Yupura. It is desirable to fix our attention on the angles formed by the partial chains, in different regions of America, with the meridians; because on less extended surfaces, for instance in Germany, we find also this singular co-existence of groups of neighbouring mountains following laws of direction altogether different, though every separate group exhibits the greatest uniformity in the line of chains.

The soil on which the mountains of Parime rise, is slightly convex. By barometric measures I found that, between 3 and 4 degrees north lat.i.tude, the plains are elevated from 160 to 180 toises above sea-level. This height will appear considerable if we reflect that at the foot of the Andes of Peru, at Tomependa, 900 leagues from the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, the Llanos or plains of the Amazon rise only to the height of 194 toises. The distinctive characteristics of the group of the mountains of Parime are the rocks of granite and gneiss-granite, the total absence of calcareous secondary formations, and the shelves of bare rock (the tsy of the Chinese deserts), which occupy immense s.p.a.ces in the savannahs.

5. GROUP OF THE BRAZIL MOUNTAINS.

This group has. .h.i.therto been marked on the maps in a very erroneous way. The temperate table-lands and real chains of 300 to 500 toises high have been confounded with countries of exceedingly hot temperature, and of which the undulating surface presents only ranges of hills variously grouped. But the observations of scientific travellers have recently thrown great light on the orography of Portuguese America. The mountainous region of Brazil, of which the mean height rises at least to 400 toises, is comprehended within very narrow limits, nearly between 18 and 28 degrees south lat.i.tude; it does not appear to extend, between the provinces of Goyaz and Matogrosso, beyond longitude 53 degrees west of the meridian of Paris.

When we regard in one view the eastern configuration of North and South America, we perceive that the coast of Brazil and Guiana, from Cape Saint Roque to the mouth of the Orinoco (stretching from south-east to north-west), corresponds with that of Labrador, as the coast from Cape Saint Roque to the Rio de la Plata corresponds with that of the United States (stretching from south-west to north-east).

The chain of the Alleghenies is opposite to the latter coast, as the princ.i.p.al Cordilleras of Brazil are nearly parallel to the sh.o.r.e of the provinces of Porto Seguro, Rio Janeiro and Rio Grande. The Alleghenies, generally composed of grauwacke and transition rocks, are somewhat loftier than the almost primitive mountains (of granite, gneiss and mica-slate) of the Brazilian group; they are also of a far more simple structure, their chains lying nearer to each other and preserving, as in the Jura, a more uniform parallelism.

If, instead of comparing those parts of the new continent situated north and south of the equator, we confine ourselves to South America, we find on the western and northern coasts in their whole length, a continued chain near the sh.o.r.e (the Andes and the Cordillera of Venezuela), while the eastern coast presents ma.s.ses of more or less lofty mountains only between the 12 and 30 degrees south lat.i.tude. In this s.p.a.ce, 360 leagues in length, the system of the Brazil mountains corresponds geologically in form and position with the Andes of Chile and Peru. Its most considerable portion lies between the parallels 15 and 22 degrees, opposite the Andes of Potosi and La Paz, but its mean height is five toises less, and cannot even be compared with that of the mountains of Parime, Jura and Auvergne. The princ.i.p.al direction of the Brazilian chains, where they attain the height of from four to five hundred toises, is from south to north, and from south-south-west to north-north-east; but, between 13 and 19 degrees the chains are considerably enlarged, and at the same time lowered towards the west.

Ridges and ranges of hills seem to advance beyond the land-straits which separate the sources of the Rio Araguay, Parana, Topayos, Paraguay, Guapore and Aguapehy, in 63 degrees longitude. As the western widening of the Brazilian group, or rather the undulations of the soil in the Campos Parecis, correspond with the spurs of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and Beni, which the Andes send out eastward, it was formerly concluded that the system of the mountains of Brazil was linked with that of the Andes of Upper Peru. I myself laboured under this error in my first geologic studies.

A coast chain (Serra do Mar) runs nearly parallel with the coast, north-east of Rio Janeiro, lowering considerably towards Rio Doce, and losing itself almost entirely near Bahia (lat.i.tude 12 degrees 58 minutes). According to M. Eschwege* some small ridges reach Cape Saint Roque (lat.i.tude 5 degrees 12 minutes). (* Geognostiches Gemulde von Brasilien, 1822. The limestone of Bahia abounds in fossil wood.) South-east of Rio Janeiro the Serra do Mar follows the coast behind the island of Saint Catherine as far as Torres (lat.i.tude 29 degrees 20 minutes); it there turns westward and forms an elbow stretching by the Campos of Vacaria towards the banks of the Jacuy.

Another chain is situated westward of the sh.o.r.e-chain of Brazil. This is the most lofty and considerable of all and is called the chain of Villarica. Mr. Eschwege distinguishes it by the name of Serra do Espinhaco and considers it as the princ.i.p.al part of the whole structure of the mountains of Brazil. This Cordillera loses itself northward,* between Minas Novas and the southern extremity of the Capitania of Bahia, in 16 degrees lat.i.tude. (* The rocky ridges that form the cataract of Paulo Affonso, in the Rio San Francisco, are supposed to belong to the northern prolongation of the Serra do Espinhaco, as a series of heights in the province of Seara (fetid calcareous rocks containing a quant.i.ty of petrified fish) belong to the Serra dos Vertentes.) It is there more than 60 leagues removed from the coast of Porto Seguro; but southward, between the parallels of Rio Janeiro and Saint Paul (lat.i.tude 22 to 23 degrees), in the knot of the mountains of Serra da Mantiquiera, it draws so near to the Cordillera of the sh.o.r.e (Serra do Mar), that they are almost confounded together. In the same manner the Serra do Espinhaco follows constantly the direction of a meridian, towards the north; while towards the south it runs south-east, and terminates about 25 degrees lat.i.tude. The chain reaches its highest elevation between 18 and 21 degrees; and there the spurs and table-lands at its back are of sufficient extent to furnish lands for cultivation where, at successive heights, there are temperate climates comparable to the delicious climates of Xalapa, Guaduas, Caracas and Caripe. This advantage, which depends at once on the widening of the ma.s.s of the chain and of its spurs, is nowhere found in the same degree east of the Andes, not even in chains of more considerable absolute height, as those of Venezuela and the Orinoco. The culminant points of the Serra do Espinhaco, in the Capitania of Minas Geraes, are the Itambe (932 toises), the Serra da Piedade, near Sabara (910 toises), the Itacolumi, properly Itacunumi (900 toises), the Pico of Itabira (816 toises), the Serras of Caraca, Ibitipoca and Papagayo. Saint Hilaire felt piercing cold in the month of November (therefore in summer) in the whole Cordillera of Lapa, from the Villa do Principe to the Morro de Gaspar Suares.

We have just noticed two chains of mountains nearly parallel but of which the most extensive (the littoral chain) is the least lofty. The capital of Brazil is situated at the point where the two chains draw nearest together and are linked together on the east of the Serra de Mantiqueira, if not by a transversal ridge, at least by a mountainous territory. Old systematic ideas respecting the rising of mountains in proportion as we advance into a country, would have warranted the belief that there existed, in the Capitania of Mato Grosso, a central Cordillera much loftier than that of Villarica or do Espinhaco; but we now know (and this is confirmed by climateric circ.u.mstances) that there exists no continued chain, properly speaking, westward of Rio San Francisco, on the frontiers of Minas Geraes and Goyaz. We find only a group of mountains, of which the culminant points are the Serras da Canastra (south-west of Paracatu) and da Marcella (lat.i.tude 18 1/2 and 19.10 degrees), and, further north, the Pyrenees stretching from east to west (lat.i.tude 16 degrees 10 minutes) between Villaboa and Mej.a.ponte). M. Eschwege has named the group of mountains of Goyaz the Serra dos Vertentes, because it divides the waters between the southern tributary streams of the Rio Grande or Parana, and the northern tributary streams of Rio Tucantines. It runs southward beyond the Rio Grande (Parana), and approaches the chain of Espinpapo in 23 degrees lat.i.tude, by the Serra do Franca. It attains only the height of 300 or 400 toises, with the exception of some summits north-west of Paracatu, and is consequently much lower than the chain of Villarica.

Further on, west of the meridian of Villaboa, there are only ridges and a series of low hills which, on a length of 12 degrees, form the division of water (lat.i.tude 13 to 17 degrees) between the Araguay and the Paranaiba (a tributary of the Parana), between the Rio Topayos and the Paraguay, between the Guapore and the Aguapehy. The Serra of San Marta (longitude 15 1/2 degrees) is somewhat lofty, but maps have vastly exaggerated the height of the Serras or Campos Parecis north of the towns of Cuyaba and Villabella (lat.i.tude 13 to 14 degrees, longitude 58 to 62 degrees). These Campos, which take their name from that of a tribe of wild Indians, are vast, barren table-lands, entirely dest.i.tute of vegetation; and in them the sources of the tributary streams of three great rivers, the Topayos, the Madeira and the Paraguay, take their rise.

According to the measures and geologic observations of M. Eschwege, the high summits of the Serra do Mar (the coast-chain) scarcely attain 660 toises; those of the Serra do Espinhaco (chain of Villarica), 950 toises; those of Serra de los Vertentes (group of Canastra and the Brazilian Pyrenees), 450 toises. Further west the surface of the soil seems to present but slight undulations; but no measure of height has been made beyond the meridian of Villaboa. Considering the system of the mountains of Brazil in their real limits, we find, except some conglomerates, the same absence of secondary formations as in the system of the mountains of the Orinoco (group of Parime). These secondary formations, which rise to considerable heights in the Cordillera of Venezuela and c.u.mana, belong only to the low regions of Brazil.

B. PLAINS (LLANOS) OR BASINS.

In that part of South America situated on the east of the Andes we have successively examined three systems of mountains, those of the sh.o.r.e of Venezuela, of the Parime and Brazil: we have seen that this mountainous region, which equals the Cordillera of the Andes, not in ma.s.s, but in area and horizontal section of surface, is three times less elevated, much less rich in precious metals adhering to the rock, dest.i.tute of recent traces of volcanic fire and, with the exception of the coast of Venezuela, little exposed to the violence of earthquakes.

The average height of the three systems diminishes from north to south, from 750 to 400 toises; those of the culminant points (maxima of the height of each group) from 1350 to 1000 or 900 toises. Hence it results that the loftiest chain, with the exception of the small insulated system of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, is the Cordillera of the sh.o.r.e of Venezuela, which is itself but a continuation of the Andes. Directing our attention northward, we find in Central America (lat.i.tude 12 to 30 degrees) and North America (lat.i.tude 30 to 70 degrees), on the east of the Andes of Guatimala, Mexico and Upper Louisiana, the same regular lowering which struck us towards the south. In this vast extent of land, from the Cordillera of Venezuela to the polar circle, eastern America presents two distinct systems, the group of the mountains of the West Indies (which in its eastern part is volcanic) and the chain of the Alleghenies. The former of these systems, partly covered by the ocean, may be compared, with respect to its relative position and form, to the Sierra Parime; the latter, to the Brazil chains, running also from south-west to north-east. The culminant points of those two systems rise to 1138 and 1040 toises. Such are the elements of this curve, of which the convex summit is in the littoral chain of Venezuela:

AMERICA, EAST OF THE ANDES.

COLUMN 1 : SYSTEMS OF MOUNTAINS.

COLUMN 2 : MAXIMA OF HEIGHTS IN TOISES.

Brazil Group : Itacolumi 900 (south lat.i.tude 20 1/2 degrees).

Parime Group : Duida 1300 (north lat.i.tude 3 1/4 degrees).

Littoral Chain of Venezuela : Silla of Caracas 1350 (north lat.i.tude 10 1/2 degrees).

Group of the West Indies : Blue Mountains 1138 (north lat.i.tude 18 1/5 degrees).