166 Guyot on the Contrast in the Physical Features 
turned to the south, one situated northwest of the other; the 
long cord of the Rocky Mountains and of’the Andes, running 
the length of the extreme western coast, and binding the two 
continents together; great plains on the east, forming the larger 
part of their surface ; a slight elevated chain along the Atlantic 
coast of both, the Alleghanies in North America, the Serra do 
Espinhago and the Serra do Mar of Brazil, in South America ; 
finally, in the centre, three short, transverse chains, that of Parime, 
in the Guyanas, that of Venezuela, and that of the great Antilles, 
broken into a number of islands these, in a few words, are all 
the essential features of this vast division of the world. 
That which constitutes the richness of organization in the con- 
tinents, is the number and abundance of internal contrasts calling 
out at once the activity of nature and that of man. The Old 
World is full of them; America has only a small number, all 
tending to disappear by reason of the structure itse 
Thus in Asia and Europe, the line of the highest lands, the 
*». continental axis, extending from the Himalaya to the Alps and the 
~ « Pyrenees, divides these two continents into two unequal parts, 
“s+ one north and one south, opposite in climate, in vegetation, and 
% -even in races. Scarcely anywhere is the transition from one to 
the other gradual; almost everywhere it is abrupt and sudden. 
'* . The table lands of Tubet and frigid Mongolia touch the tropical 
lains of China and of the Indies; the traveller who passes the 
Adios, abandons the severe landscapes and the firs of the North, 
descend, by a single day’s journey, into the ever verdant gar- 
ens and the orange groves of fair Italy ; he exchanges the cold 
Ds ists of the North for the sun of the South, and’ often leaves on 
.- one side, the Festina and frosts of winterfito find on se orliary the 
“warm breath of spring, its verdure and its flower 
- This strikifig contrast between the North ant ‘the South re 
i? eMctade in*the, “character and history of all the: nations’ ‘of ee 
py Ja nd Europe, is doubtless found in America; pede 6 ee 
rd “4 “bétter known than in: this county. a im nature 
: sheets. sae doe ’ 
r Oi OF continaed plains.of thé con 
eae of the ‘North gradually’tx ee 
i e ‘shores of the, F 
« 
+? 5 ok 
rées, to. the Say aaelhy (pret 
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