164 MOUNTAINS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 



South America is the entire want of hills. In a 

 space extending to 387 square miles, there is not a 

 single eminence a foot high. These plains, how- 

 ever, present two kinds of inequalities : the hancos, 

 consisting of broken strata of sandstone or lime- 

 stone, which stand four or five feet above the sur- 

 face ; and the mesas, composed of small flats or con- 

 vex mounds, rising gradually to the height of a few 

 yards. The uniform aspect of these flats, the ex- 

 treme rarity of inhabitants, the fatigue of travelling 

 under a burning sky amid clouds of dust, the con- 

 tinual recession of the horizon, and the successive 

 appearance of solitary palms, make the steppes ap- 

 pear far more extensive than they really are. It 

 has even been imagined that the whole eastern side 

 of South America, from the Orinoco and the Apure 

 to the Plata and the Straits of Magellan, is one great 

 level ; but this is not the case. In order to under- 

 stand their limitations it will be necessary to take a 

 general view of the mountain-ranges. 



The Cordillera of the coast, where the highest 

 summit is the Silla of Caraccas, and which is con- 

 nected by the Paramo de las Rosas to the Nevado 

 de Merida, and the Andes of New-Grenada, has al- 

 ready been described. A less elevated but much 

 larger group of mountains extends from the mouths 

 of the Guaviare and the Meta, the source of the Ori- 

 noco, the Marony, and the Essequibo, towards French 

 and Dutch Guiana. This, which is named the cor- 

 dillera of Parime, may be followed for a length of 

 863 miles, and is separated from the Andes of New- 

 Grenada by a space of 276 miles in breadth. A third 

 chain of mountains, which connects the Andes of 

 Peru with the mountains of Brazil, is the cordillera 

 of Chiguitos, dividing the rivers flowing into the 

 Amazon from the tributaries of the Plata. 



These three transverse chains or groups, extend- 

 ing from west to east within the limits of the torrid 

 zone, are separated by level tracts forming the plains 



