^5(fi Geological Deiincation of South Amerkd. 



original mountains which extend from west to cast. Witnf 

 those ofNoith America I am not acquainted, but it appear? 

 that some exist in Canada under the latitude of 50" and 

 4'3° north latitude, as in the destroyed continent of the 

 Gulph of Mexico under \if and 'J'J",' as is proved by the 

 mountains of Cuba and Saint Domingo. In South Ame- 

 rica there arc three chains of original n^ountains wliich run 

 parallel to the equator : the chain of the coast under 9" and 

 10°; that chain which is in the great cataracts of Auturcs 

 (in latitude 5" 3<)') is between latitude 3° and 7° ; and that 

 in Maipure in 5)" ic' 5o", which I therefore call the chain 

 of the cataracts or that of Parimc, and the chain of Che- 

 fjuitos under 15" and 20° south latitude. 



These chains in the old continent on this side of the 

 ivestern ocean can be traced, and it is seen how the original 

 mountains of Fernambouc, Minas, La Bahia, and Janeiro, 

 correspond, under the same latitude, to those of Congo, as 

 the immense plains near the river Amazon lie opposite to 

 the plains of Lower Guinea, the Cordillera of the cataracts 

 opposite to those of Upper Guinea, and the Llanos of the 

 Mississippi, since the irruption of the Gulph of Mexico, a 

 property of the sea, opposite to the Desart of Serah. This 

 view will appear to be less hazarded when one reflects in 

 what manner the old continent has been separated from tlie 

 new one by the force of the water. The form of the coasts, 

 and the salient and re-entering angles of America, Africa, 

 and Europe, are a suJEHelcnt proof of this catastrophe. What 

 we call the Atlantic ocean is nothing else than a valley 

 scooped out by the sea. The pyramidal form of all the 

 continents with their summits turned southwards, the great 

 flattening of the earth at tlie south pole, and other pha?no- 

 inena, observed by Dr. Forster, seem to show that the in- 

 flux of the witter was from the south. On the coast of 

 Brasil, from Rio Janiero to Fernambouc, it found resist- 

 ance, and taking a direction from the latitude of 50° nortli 

 towards the north-ea.^t, where it scooped out the Gulf of 

 Guinea near Loango Benin and Mine, it was obliged by 

 the mountains of Upper (juinea to direct itself uorth-west, 

 and separated, to the latitude of 23° north, llie coast of Gui- 

 nea from Mexico and Florida. The force of the waters was 

 siill broken by the cordillera of the United States of Anie-- 

 rica, and once more turned- towards the north-east, and- 

 seems to have spared less the western coast of Europe than' 

 the northern of America. The least breadth of this channel' 

 IS at the Brasils and (Greenland j but, agreeably to tlie geo- 

 graphical history of plants and animals, it seems to have 



been- 



