114 The Andes and the Amazon. 



CHAPTER yil. 



Geological History of South America. — Rise of the Andes. — Creation of the 

 Amazon. — Characteristic Features of the Continent. — Andean Chain. — 

 The Equatorial Volcanoes. 



Three cycles ago an island rose from the sea where now 

 expands the vast continent of South America. It was the 

 culminating point of the highlands of Guiana. For ages 

 this granite peak was the sole representative of dry land 

 in our hemisphere south of the Canada hills. In process 

 of time, a cluster of islands rose above the thermal waters. 

 They were the small beginnings of the future mountains 

 of Brazil, holding in their laps the diamonds which now 

 sparkle in the crown of Dom Pedro II. Long protracted 

 eons elapsed without adding a page to the geology of 

 South America. The Creator seems to have been busy 

 elsewhere. Decorating the north with the gorgeous flora 

 of the carboniferous period, till, in the language of Hugh 

 Miller, " to distant planets our earth must have shone with 

 a green and delicate ray," he rubbed the picture out, and 

 ushered in the hideous reptilian age, when monstrous sauri- 

 ans, footed, paddled, and winged, were the lords of this 

 lower world. All the great mountain chains were at this 

 time slumbering beneath the ocean. The city of New 

 York was sure of its site ; but huge dinotheria wallowed 

 in the mire where now stand the palaces of Paris, London, 

 and Vienna. 



At length the morning breaks upon the last day of cre- 

 ation, and the fiat goes forth that the proud waves of the 

 Pacific, which have so long washed the table-lands of 

 Guiana and Brazil, shall be stayed. Far away toward the 



