168 Guyot on the Contrast in the Physical Features 
a, The climate of the New World, compared. with that of the 
ee bat is distinguished by the abundance of pluvial waters, in gen- 
é , by a greater humidity. We have seen in what manner this 
are se riareencid is the consequence of its narrow and lengthened 
form; of the opening of the great plains—that is, of the two 
* continents almost entire—to the winds of the sea ; of the absence 
of high mountains in the East; in a word, of the configuration 
and general* exposure of this part of the globe. While the Old 
World, with its compact figure, its vast plateaus, its high lands 
in the East, receives only an average of 77 inches of water by 
the year under the tropics, America receives 115 inches. The 
temperate regions of Europe have 34 inches; North America, 39 
inches. 
Add to this abundance of water, the extent of plains which 
permit the development of vast systems of water courses, an 
you will understand the existence of that innumerable multitude 
of rivers and lakes, which are one of the most characteristic fea- | 
* 2s tutes of the two Americas. Notwithstanding a much smaller ex- | 
“a *tent ‘than’ that of the Old World, the New possesses the largest 
oe TE rivers ‘on the earth; the richest in waters, those whose basins 
cot ae eee 4 ‘the vastest spaces, Where can we find, on the soothes of 
eT lobe, a river equal to the mighty Marafion, ‘that giant among 
ae thé rivers of the earth, gathering its waters from a surface of a mill- 
* . ion and-a half square miles, and bearing them to the ocean, after 
* “Bico urse af 3,000 miles® This mighty monarch receives in his | 
. ogress thie i cueines of: tributaries, each. of which, by its great- 
‘ 
a 
ss and the abundance of its waters, wou ‘suffice for the wants 
a whole vast country. Such are the: ieayale,. the Rio Purus, 
zs ne e Rio Negré,. above all, the Madera, ‘rivalling in importance the 
. river to whichtit yields the honor of giving a name to their united 
aterg. isn ‘farther it advances in its majestic 5 a ice the more — | 
its propo Hieys. increase; and before <arriviw® “at the ocean, its — : 
42 from the middle of which the: ‘eye ca cannot reach, ie 
ems rather to be a fresh-water. sea; flowin g Sluggishl 
ocean basin, than a river of th®icd 
he.fre 
=, 
my 
Pen fh 
ts mor hésfresh and muddy waters af. 
cuishete a.clance of the eye from 
waters Of tle ocean ; and their sim ‘borne 
oes to torn farther poh ew'spil 
PP a 
# ontinents ,. 
oe In ‘the cle corifen ae 
“Sissippi, .t tk cond of the ‘ri vi 
ay coin cnet sfor its: wir 
: ts basin uly fro a8 3 
