94 SMALL ELEYATION OI THE LLAFOS. 





Chiquitos and of the sources of the G-uapoie, is very rich in 

 gold, and widens toward the east, in Brazil, into vast table- 

 lands, having a mild and temperate climate. Between these 

 two transverse chains, contiguous to the Andes, an isolated 

 group of granitic mountains is situated, from 3 to 7 north 

 latitude; which also runs parallel to the Equator, but, not 

 passing the meridian of 71, terminates abruptly towards 

 the west, and is not united to the Andes of New Grenada. 

 These three transverse chains have no active volcanos ; we 

 know not whether the most southern, like the two others, 

 be destitute of trachytes or trap-porphyry. None of their 

 summits enter the limit of perpetual snow; and the mean 

 height of the Cordillera of La Parime, and of the littoral 

 chain of Caracas, does not reach six hundred toises, though 

 some of its summits rise fourteen hundred toises above the 

 level of the sea.* The three transverse chains are separated 

 by plains entirely closed towards the west, and open towards 

 the east and south-east. When we reflect on their small 

 elevation above the surface of the ocean, we are tempted to 

 consider them as gulfs stretching in the direction of the cur- 

 rent of rotation. If, from the effect of some peculiar attrac- 

 tion, the waters of the Atlantic were to rise fifty toises at 

 the mouth of the Orinoco, and two hundred toises at the 

 mouth of the Amazon, the flood would submerge more than 

 the half of South America. The eastern declivity, or the 

 foot of the Andes, now six hundred leagues distant from the 

 coast of Brazil, would become a shore beaten by the waves. 

 This consideration is the result of a barometric measurement, 

 taken in the province of Jaen de Bracamoros, where the 

 river Amazon issues from the Cordilleras. I found the mean 

 height of this immense river only one hundred and ninety- 

 four toises above the present level of the Atlantic. The 

 intermediate plains, however, covered with forests, are still 

 five times higher than the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, anc 

 the grass-covered Llanos of Caracas and the Meta. 



Those Llanos which form the basin of the Orinoco, and 

 which we crossed twice in one year, in the months of March 



* We do not reckon here, as belonging to the chain of the coast, th* 

 Nevados and Paramos of Merida and of Truxillo, which are a prolonga 

 lion of the Andes of New Grenada. 



