2 GaTdiner G. Huhbard — South AQnei'iea. 



Bolivia and Ecuador to Colombia. The Cordilleras and the Andes 

 are connected in several places by knots or cross-chains of moun- 

 tains. In Colombia the Andes turn to the northwest, reaching 

 their lowest elevation at the Panama canal, and continue thence, 

 through Central America and North America as the Rocky 

 Mountains, to the Arctic ocean. Near the source of the Magda- 

 lena and Cauca rivers in Colombia, the eastern range is deflected 

 to the east along the northern coast of South America. The cen- 

 tral range disappears between the Magdalena and Cauca rivers. 



The Andes form the water-shed of the continent. The waters 

 on the western slope flow into the Pacific ocean. The rivers that 

 rise on the eastern slope, in northern Peru and Ecuador, foi'ce 

 their way through the Cordilleras and at their foot drain the 

 montaiia of Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. In the southern part of 

 Peru and upper Chili there is a broad sierra or plateau, at an 

 elevation of from twelve to fourteen thousand feet. The streams 

 that rise in this sierra either empty into salt or alkaline lakes or 

 sink into the ground. 



Unlike all other long ranges of mountains, the continental or 

 eastern side of the Cordilleras is nearly as jorecipitous as that ex- 

 tending to the Pacific. Craters of extinct volcanoes and volcanoes 

 now in eruption are found in all parts of the chain. In Ecuador 

 there are fifty-two volcanoes, and twenty of these, covered with 

 perpetual snow and presided over by Chimborazo and Cotopaxi, 

 rise out of a group of mountains encircling the valley of Quito, 

 and are all visible from a single point. Three are active and five 

 others have been in eruption at one or more times since the con- 

 quest. One of these, Sangai, is the most active volcano on the 

 globe : it sends forth a constant stream of fire, water, mud and 

 ashes, and some assert that it has done so without intermission for 

 300 years ; 267 explosions have been counted in one hour. This 

 is also the land of earthquakes : in 1868, 50,000 lives, we are told, 

 were lost in one day ; the tremor was felt over four countries and 

 from the Andes to the Sandwich Islands. The tidal wave washed 

 a gunboat of the United States on shore at Arica in lower Peru, 

 1000 miles to the south, and sixteen hours later the wave was felt 

 across the Pacific at New Zealand. 



A range of mountains separates Eastern Venezuela and Guiana 

 from the valley of the Amazon. Other ranges south of the 

 Amazon run southwestwardly, following the Atlantic coast line 

 from Cape St. Roque to the Rio de la Plata. 



