18 SOUTH AMEEICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



Cox, Moreno, Musters, Eogers, Moyano, Lista have ventured into the wilds of 

 Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Martin de Moussy, Burmeister, Page, Crevaux, 

 Thuar, De Brettes, and many others have led the way for settlers, miners, and 

 traders in the Argentine lands. In the vast Brazilian domain Agassiz and Hart 

 have ascended the Amazons in the wake of numerous predecessors. Halfeld has 

 prepared the map of the San Francisco basin ; Wells has studied the fluvial valleys 

 inclinino- towards Sao Luis de Maranhao ; Von den Steinen has ascended the 

 Xingu ; Ehrenreich has resided amongst the Carib Indians of the Amazonian 

 woodlands ; Church has surveyed the Madeira and its rapids. The exploration of 

 the Purus, begun by Chandless, has been completed by Labre, who has connected 

 the various routes of this river and its affluents with the course of the ]\Iadre de 

 Dies and of the Mamoré. Sosa's exploration of the Iça (Putumayo) between 

 Ecuador and Amazonia has been resumed after a lapse of two hundred and fifty 

 years by Crevaux and Simson. Lastly, in the Guianas, where Schomburgk had 

 opened the way to the interior, and where Appun and Brown had made important 

 geological and natural history studies, Crevaux and Coudreau have advanced across 

 the mountains and descended by various routes towards the banks of the Amazons. 

 Every year numerous travellers continue the work of discovery, and their steps 

 are followed by miners and railway builders. 



Nevertheless there still remain vast territories in South America which have 

 never yet been traversed and described by any white man ; notably in the bound- 

 less forest region of the Ama/ons valley there are compact spaces, 20,000 square 

 miles in extent, which still await the explorer. In these districts the course of 

 the rivers has been traced at haphazard or on hearsay reports. No part of the 

 continent has been figured with an accuracy comparable to that of the charts of 

 West Europe. Even the countries which have made the greatest progress in this 

 respect, the Colombian plateau. Chili, West Peru, the Argentine Republic, possess 

 no thorough surveys. The best charts are naturally those of the seaboard 

 frequented by the mariners of all nations, and those of the agricultural and 

 mining regions in the interior, whore the populations are already grouped in 

 numerous towns and cities. 



IL 



The triangular mass of South America forms two distinct natural divisions, 

 differing greatly in their form, relief, climate, products, inhabitants, and historic 

 evolution. In the western section of the continent are comprised the mountain 

 ranges of varying size and altitude, and of comparatively recent origin, which 

 follow the coastline of the Caribbean and Pacific waters between the two extreme 

 points of Trinidad and Staten Island, and which have a total development of no 

 less than 5,900 miles. The eastern section, less in absolute length, but of far 

 greater superficial extent, embraces the vast plains of the interior, together with 

 the irregular mass of uplands which skirt the Atlantic as far south as the La Plata 

 estuary, and which are of great geological age. 



The political divisions of the continent correspond in a general way with 



