HElGlir Or Tlili EASCES. 289 



eystems of counter-slopes partially developed, in the direction 

 from west to east, between the Gruaviare and the Caqueta, 

 and between the Mamori and the Pilcomayo. It is also 

 worthy of remark, that in the southern hemisphere, the 

 Cordillera of the Andes sends an immense counterpoise 

 eastward in the promontory of the Sierra Nevada de Cocha- 

 bamba, whence begins the ridge stretching between the 

 tributary streams of the Madeira and the Paraguay to the 

 lofty group of the mountains of Brazil or Minas Geraes. 

 Three transversal chains (the coast-mountains of Venezuela, 

 of the Orinoco or Parime, and the Brazil mountains) tend 

 to join the longitudinal chain (the Andes), either by an in- 

 termediary group (between the lake of Valencia and Tocuyo), 

 or by ridges formed by the intersection of counter-slopes in 

 the plains. The two extremities of the three Llanos which 

 communicate by land-straits, the Llanos of the Lower 

 Orinoco, the Amazon, and the Rio de la Plata or of Buenos 

 Ayres, are steppes covered with gramma, while the inter- 

 mediary Llano (that of the Amazon) is a thick forest. 

 With respect to the two land-straits, forming bands directed 

 from north to south (from the Apure to Caqueta across the 

 Provincia de los Llanos, and the sources of the Mamori to 

 Eio Pilcomayo, across the province of Mocos and Chiquitos) 

 they are bare and grassy steppes like the plains of Caracas 

 and Buenos Ayres. 



In the immense extent of land east of the Andes, com- 

 prehending more than 480,000 square sea leagues, of which 

 92,000 are a mountainous tract of country, no group rises 

 to the region of perpetual snow; none even attains the 

 height of 1,400 toises. This lowering of the mountains in 

 the eastern region of the New Continent, extends as far as 

 60 north latitude ; while in the western part, on the pro- 

 longation of the Cordillera of the Andes, the highest 

 summits rise in Mexico (lat. 18 59'), to 2770 toises, and in 

 the Kocky Mountains (lat. 37 to 40) to 1900 toises. The 

 insulated group of the Alleghanies, corresponding in its 

 eastern position and direction with the Brazil group, does 

 not exceed 1040 toises.* The lofty summits, therefore, 



The culminant point of the Alloghanies is Mount Washington, in 

 New Hampshire, lat. 44^. According to Captain Partridge* its height U 

 6G34 English feet. 



VOL. III. V 



