454 SUMMARY OP THE CONTENTS. 



quent variance between the different tribes. Figures graven on 

 the rocks show that these solitudes were once the seat of a degree 

 of civilization which has now disappeared . . . 40 42 



Scientific Elucidations and Additions p. 43 to p. 165. 

 The island-studded Lake of Tacarigua ; its relations to the neighbor- 

 ing mountain chains. Geological description. Progress of culti- 

 vation and of European civilization. Varieties of the sugar-cane. 

 Cacao plantations. Great fertility of soil associated within the 

 tropics with insalubrity of atmosphere . - 4''' ~".< 43 47 



"Banks" or broken strata. General horizontality of the surface. 

 Subsidences of the surface . . . . . : 47 49 



Resemblance of the distant steppe to the ocean. Naked stony crust. 

 Tabular masses of syenite ; whether prejudicial to health 49 50 



General views respecting the mountain systems of North and South 

 America, embracing the most recent information. Chains running 

 in a south-west and north-east direction in Brazil and in the At- 

 lantic portion of the United States of North America. The low 

 province of Chiquitos ; small swellings of the ground constitute the 

 division between the waters of the Guapore and Aguapehi in 15 

 and 17 S. lat., and between the river basins of the Orinoco and 

 the Rio Negro in 2 and 3 N. lat. . . . . 5051 



Continuation of the chain of the Andes north of the Isthmus of 

 Panama (through the Aztec country, where Popocatepetl, 16,626 

 French, or 17,720 English feet high, has very recently been again 

 ascended by Captain Stone) in the Sierra de las Grullas and the 

 Rocky Mountains. Excellent scientific investigations of Captain 

 Fremont. The longest barometric levelling ever made, showing a 

 profile or vertical section of the earth's surface through a space of 

 28 of longitude. Culminating point of the route from the coast of 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific. " South Pass," south of the Wind 

 River Mountains. Swelling of the ground in the Great Basin. 

 Long contested existence of the Timpanogos Lake. Coast Chain, 

 Maritime Alps, or Sierra Nevada of California. Volcanic eruptions. 

 Falls of the Columbia . . .. f ' . .,.. ^ : , . _ .. . _ . 5159 



General considerations on the contrasts shown by the spaces included 

 between the Central Chain (the Rocky Mountains) and the diverging 

 chains on the east and west (the Alleghanies and the Sierra Nevada 

 of California) ; hypsometric characters of the low eastern space, 

 which is only from 400 to 600 French, or 426 to 639 English feet 

 .above the level of th sea, and of the arid, uninhabited plain 5000 

 or 6000 (5330 to 6400 English) feet above the same level, called 

 the Great Basin. Sources of the Mississippi in the Lake of Istaca 

 according to Nicollet's highly meritorious researches. Buffalo 

 country; Gomara's assertion of buffaloes having been formerly 

 tamed in the northern part of Mexico . \ ' . . ' 59 62 



