ELEVATION OF THE LASD. 



cauntry appears to advance in Dutch and French 

 as far as within twenty to twenty-five leagues of the, coast. 

 The numerous cataracts of the rivers of Surinam, Mdroni, 

 and Oyapoc, prove the extent and the prolongation of rocky 

 ridges; but in those regions nothing indicates the existence 

 of continued plains or table-lands some hundred toises 

 high, fitted for the cultivation of the plants of the tem- 

 perate zone. 



The system of the mountains of Parime sui-passes in 

 extent nineteen times that of the whole of Switzerland. 

 Even considering the mountainous group of the sources of 

 the Rio Negro and the Xie as independent or insulated 

 amidst the plains, we still find the Sierra Parime (between 

 jMaypures and the sources of the Oyapoc) to be 340 

 leagues in length ; its greatest breadth (the rocks of 

 Imataca, near the delta of the Orinoco, at the sources of 

 the Bio Paru) is 140 leagues. In the group of the Parime, 

 as well as in the group of the mountains of central Asia, 

 between the Himalaya and the Altai, the partial chains are 

 often interrupted and have no uniform parallelism. To- 

 wards the south-west, however (between the strait of Bara- 

 guan, the mouth of the Bio Zama, and the Esmeralda), 

 the line of the mountains is generally in the direction 

 of N. 70 W. Such is also the position of a distant coast, 

 that of Portuguese, French, Dutch, and English Guiana, 

 from Cape North to the mouth of the Orinoco ; such is the 

 mean direction of the course of the Bio Negro and Yupura. 

 It is desirable to fix our attention on the angles formed by 

 the partial chains, in different regions of America, with the 

 meridians ; because on less extended surfaces, for instance 

 in Germany, we find also this singular co-existence of 

 groups of neighbouring mountains following laws of direc- 

 tion altogether different, though every separate group 

 exhibits the greatest uniformity in the line of chains. 



The soil on which the mountains of Parime rise, is 

 slightly convex. -By barometric measures I found that 

 between 3 and 4 of north latitude, the plains are elevated 

 from 160 to ISO toises above sea-level. This height will 

 appear considerable if we reflect that at the foot of the 

 Andes of Peru, at Tomependa, 900 leagues from the coast 

 of the Atlantic Ocean, the Llanos or plains of the Amazon 



