PAMPAS AND PRAIRIES. 



northern declivity of a mountain called Cerro de Potosi, which is 

 rich in mineral veins, and especially in silver. 



97. Pampas of Patagonia and Buenos Ayres. Since, as 

 has been explained, this great chain runs close to the western 

 coast, it may be expected that a vast tract of plains, or lower 

 lands, must extend from the foot of its eastern declivity to 

 the eastern coast of the continent. This tract in South America 

 is covered with the deserts and pampas, as they are called, of 

 Patagonia and Buenos Ayres, the surface of which is sandy and 

 marshy, or saline, producing nothing but a scanty pasture and 

 stunted trees. 



98. Selvas of Amazon. Another portion, consisting of 

 the valley of the great Paver Amazon, called Selvas, consists of 

 a space of more than two millions of square miles, a part of which 

 is covered with natural forests, and the remainder with grassy 

 pampas. 



99. Llanos of Orinoco. The valley of the Orinoco, another 

 division, is characterised by vast flat lands, called Llanos, 

 covered with long grass, interspersed here and there with palm 

 trees, used by the traveller in these inhospitable regions as land- 

 marks. 



100. Alleghanies. Extensive lowlands stretch in like manner 

 over North America, between the chain of the Rocky Mountains 

 and the eastern coast. This division of the continent is also inter- 

 sected in a direction parallel to the Rocky Mountains, and nearer 

 to the Atlantic by a chain of much lower hills called the Alleg- 

 hanies, which, like the former, extend from the Gulf of Mexico to 

 the Arctic Ocean, enclosing an area of more than 3,000000 of 

 square miles. 



101. Eastern Plain of North America, Between the 

 chain of the Alleghanies and the Atlantic coast is another plain 

 parallel to the former, of nearly equal length from north to south, 

 but of less width. The eastern coast is indented and fringed with 

 numerous bays and creeks, which favour commerce and navigation. 



102. Great Valley of the Mississippi. The extensive valley 

 lying between the chain of the Alleghanies and the Rocky Moun- 

 tains is drained by the Mississippi, the largest and most important 

 river in the world, next to the Amazons, which, nevertheless, it 

 exceeds in length, though inferior to it in the extent and number 

 of its tributaries. 



103. The Prairies. Among the features which characterise 

 the land in the western continent, and more especially in its 

 northern part, the Prairies demand especial notice. These are 

 vast plains, generally covered by deep herbage, and which form a 

 level so dead and uniform, that it is impossible to resist the 



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