ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 51 



There is no immediate connection between the eastern and western 

 chains the Brazilian mountains, and the Cordilleras of Peru for 

 the low province of Chiquitos, which is a longitudinal valley run- 

 ning from north to south, and opening into the plains both of the 

 Amazons and of the river Plate, separates Brazil on the east from 

 the Alto Peru on the west. Here, as in Poland and Russia, an 

 often almost imperceptible rise of ground (called, in Sclavonian, 

 Uwaly) forms the separating water-line between the Pilcomayo and 

 the Madeira, between the Aguapehi and the G-uapore, and between 

 the Paraguay and the Rio Topayos. The swell of the ground runs 

 to the south-east from Chayanta and Pomabamba (lat. 19-20)> 

 traverses the province of Chiquitos, which, since the expulsion of 

 the Jesuits^ has again become almost a terra incognita, and forms, 

 to the north-east, where there are only detached mountains, the 

 " divortia aquarum" at the sources of the Baures and near Villa- 

 bella, lat. 15-17. 



This line of separation of the waters is- important in relation to 

 facilities of intercourse, and to the increase of cultivation and 

 civilization: more to the north (2 3 N. lat.), a similar line 

 divides the basin of the Orinoco from that of the Amazons and the 

 Rio Negro. These risings or swellings in the plains (called, by 

 Frontin, terrae tumores) might be regarded as undeveloped systems 

 of mountains, which would have connected two apparently isolated 

 groups (the Sierra Parime and the Brazilian mountains) with the 

 Andes of Timana and Cochabamba. These relations, which have 

 been hitherto but little attended to, are the ground of the division 

 which I have made of South America into three basins : viz., those 

 of the Lower Orinoco, of the Amazons, and of the Rio de la Plata. 

 The first and last of these are Steppes or prairies ; the middle basin, 

 that of the Amazons, between the Sierra Parime and the Brazilian 

 group of mountains, is a forest-covered plain or Hyldea. 



If we wish to trace, in equally few lines, a sketch of the natural 

 features of North America, let us cast our eyes first on the mount- 

 ain chain which, running from south-east to north-west, at first low 

 and narrow, and increasing both hv breadth and height from Panama 

 to Veragua, Guatimala, and Mexico (where it was the seat of a civil- 

 ization which preceded the arrival of Europeans), arrests the gene- 



