158 ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 



and saline basins. Along the Atlantic coast, in the 

 vicinity of large rivers, there exist circumscribed areas 

 of stagnant and brackish waters, the surfaces of which 

 through evaporation are often below sea level. On 

 the Pacific side, between the Andes and an upraised 

 shore line, there are saline marshes which have no 

 outlet. Patagonia embraces rainless areas which ex- 

 hibit saline depressions, though all are above the level 

 of the ocean. 



Land-locked tracts in Chili and Bolivia consti- 

 tute the desert of Atacama. A series of pits along 

 the western border of the imprisoned desert are liter- 

 ally packed with masses of salt, showing that the sea 

 once had access to them. Some of these salt mines 

 are worked at a great profit to the government of 

 Peru. 



Central America and Mexico cover arid and 

 sterile tracts, and not a few -saline depressions. Most 

 of these basins are above sea level, being located on 

 the table lands of the interior; and would not exist in 

 a country favored with a normal or plenteous rainfall. 



The United States have what is sometimes de- 

 nominated the great inland or central basin. The 

 depression on the west is near the Pacific coast, being 

 separated from the sea by the Sierra Nevada or coast 

 range of mountains. Within this extensive area is 

 located Salt Lake, a body of water larger than the 

 Dead Sea, though not so deep. 



The general aspect of the arid plateau is forbid- 

 ding, yet is far from being a sterile waste. Its borders 

 present an irregular outline, winding in and out as 

 headlands and ravines alternately occur. This vast 

 depression was once a sea, and shorelines in parallels 

 can be distinctly traced at higher and lower levels 



