AMAZONS ORINOCO PLATA. 



144. The tributaries of this river are severally so considerable 

 in magnitude and importance, that geographers are not agreed 

 as to which of them should be regarded as the main stream, and 

 the name Amazon is generally confined to the part of the river 

 below the confluence of several chief tributaries, which unite 

 nearly at the point where the Rio Negro or Black River joins- the 

 Amazons. A view of a good map of this part of Southern 

 America, will give the reader a more clear idea of the course of 

 this river and its tributaries, than could any mere verbal descrip- 

 tion. The greater tributaries are above twenty in number, 

 all of which are navigable to a point near their sources, while 

 the lesser ones are countless. 



Notwithstanding the geographical superiority of the Amazons, 

 and its vast extent of navigable water, it is inferior in commercial 

 importance to the Mississippi ; the districts of country traversed 

 by the river and its branches consisting of tracts of natural 

 forest, and uncleared and uninhabited ground. 



145. The Orinoco, another of the great rivers of the 

 southern division of the new continent, drains a valley in- 

 cluded between the tableland of Paramo, the eastern chain of 

 the Cordilleras, and the plateau of Caraccas. This river, 

 having its source near that of the Negro, flows first north, 

 and then east, discharging its waters into the Atlantic, through 

 a delta, at the borders of the Caribbean sea, opposite the island 

 of Trinidad. 



146. The Rio de la Plata. The third great river of South 

 America is that which near its source is called the Parana, and 

 near its mouth the Plata. It discharges its waters into the South 

 Atlantic, at Buenos Ayres, after having flowed down a valley 

 included between the Andes of Chili and the Brazilian mountains. 

 The length of this river is estimated at 2700 miles, and for 200 

 miles above its mouth it is nowhere less than 170 miles wide. 



147. The River System of Europe is as inferior to that of 

 the new continent in geographical, as it is superior to it in com- 

 mercial and social importance. With the exception of some of 

 the lines of river-communication in the United States, the world 

 can afford no parallel for the spectacle of commercial and 

 social movement presented by the European rivers. The gentle 

 declivities of the water-sheds from which they derive their 

 sources, and the general flatness of the plains over which they 

 flow, are eminently favourable to their commercial utility. 



In the western division of Europe, the chain of the Alps and the 



German mountains form the ridge, along the slopes of which, 



north and south, the waters flow towards the Atlantic on the one 



side, and the Mediterranean and Black Sea on the other. In the 



M 2 163 



