MOUNTAINS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 165 



of Caraccas or of the Lower Orinoco, the flats of the 

 Amazon and Rio Negro, and those of Buenos Ayres 

 or La Plata. The middle basin, known by the colo- 

 nists under the name of the basques or selv as of the 

 Amazon, is covered with trees; the southern, the 

 pampas of Buenos Ayres, with grass ; and the north- 

 ern, the llanos of Varinas and Caraccas, with plants 

 of various kinds. 



The western coasts of South America are bordered 

 by a wall of mountains, pierced at intervals by vol- 

 canic fires, and constituting the celebrated cordillera 

 of the Andes, the mean height of which is 11,830 

 feet. It extends in the direction of a meridian, send- 

 ing out two lateral branches, one in lat. 10 north, 

 being that of the coast of Caraccas ; the other in lat. 

 16 and 18 south, forming the cordillera of Chiquitos, 

 and widening eastward in Brazil into vast table-lands. 

 Between these lines is a group of granitic mountains, 

 running from 3 to 7 north latitude, in a direction 

 parallel to the equator, but not united to the Andes. 

 These three chains have no active volcanoes, and 

 none of their summits enter the line of perpetual 

 snow. They are separated by plains, which are 

 closed towards the west and open towards the east ; 

 and they are so low that were the Atlantic to rise 

 320 feet at the mouth of the Orinoco, and 1280 feet 

 at the mouth of the Amazon, more than the half of 

 South America would be covered, and the eastern 

 declivity of the Andes would become a shore of the 

 ocean. 



We now accompany the travellers on their route 

 from the northern side of the llanos to the banks 

 of the Apure, in the province of Varinas. After 

 passing two nights on horseback they arrived at a 

 little farm called El Cayman, where was a house 

 surrounded by some small huts covered with reeds 

 and skins. They found an old negro who had the 

 management of the farm during his master's ab- 

 sence. Although he told them of herds composed 



