24 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



as in the altitude, general trend, and relative position, the Brazilian .S(?;'m6- resemble 

 the Alleghanies, while the Andes correspond to the Rocky Mountains, of which 

 they were formerly regarded as the southern continuation. 



Carved into a number of fragments by tlie great streams descending from 

 the eastern slope of the Andes, the uplands facing the Atlantic present no contin- 

 uity in the direction from north to south ; in some districts they are even distri- 

 buted without any apparent order. Thus the hilly Parima region, where so many 

 gold-hunters hoped at one time to find the city of El Dorado with all its fabulous 

 treasures, develops its main axis in the direction from the north-west to the 

 south-east. The other Guiana ranges also follow, for the most part, in the same 

 direction, as indicated in the intermediate valleys watered by the affluents of the 

 Orinoco. 



South of the Amazons several chains of low elevation have the same trend, 

 running parallel with the coast between the Amazons estuary and Cape Sao 

 E,oque. But west of the Parnahyba and thence to the Rio Grande do Sul, the 

 ranges are disposed mainly north-east and south-west, in the same direction as the 

 seaboard. The more elevated and precipitous ranges are almost completely sepa- 

 rated from the inland plateaux by the two valleys of the Sao Francisco and 

 Parana, which are inclined in opposite directions, and which communicate across 

 a low parting-line about the region of their sources. This double valley, which in 

 reality forms only a single depression, is also roughly parallel with the Brazilian 

 coast, whose sinuosities it follows at a mean distance of 300 miles, and for a total 

 length of over 1,250 miles. 



The loftiest summits of the Brazilian uplands lie under the same latitude as 

 that part of the Andes where is situated, if not the culminating point, at least the 

 most imposing group of the whole system. Like the Andes also, whose precipitous 

 slopes face the Pacific, the Brazilian highlands, and especially the Serra do Mar, 

 turn their steep escarpments towards the deep waters of the Atlantic. 



Upheaval and Subsidence. 



The eastern and western seaboards differ, to a marked extent, in the changes of 

 level that have taken place along their respective coastlines. Indications of an 

 upheaval of the land, or else of a subsidence of the sea, are much more numerous, 

 and give evidence of far more extensive oscillations on the Pacific than on the 

 Atlantic side. In fact, the opposite movement has been at work along the 

 east coast, where the encroachments of the ocean, either by actual upheaval or 

 by a sinking of the land, are still going on to an extent which is probably 

 unequalled in any other part of the world. 



On the shores of Chili and of the adjacent island of Chiloe, as was already 

 observed by Pœppig over fifty years ago, there are everywhere visible old marine 

 beaches of perfectly regular formation, and still covered with shells belonging to 

 species of the present epoch. The studies of Darwin, Philippi, and Domeyko leave 

 no doubt on this point. At the issue of all the valleys where occur lateral terraces, 

 the remains of an ancient plain eroded by the running waters, the distinction has 



