192 MOUNTAINS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 
The western coasts of South America are bor- 
dered by a wall of mountains, pierced at intervals 
by volcanic fires, and constituting the celebrated 
cordillera of the Andes, the mean height of which 
is 11,830 feet. It extends in the direction of a 
meridian, sending out two lateral branches, one in 
iat. 10° north, being that of the coast of Caraccas, 
the other in lat. 16° and 18° south, forming the 
cordillera of Chiquitos, and widening eastward in 
Brazil into vast table-lands. Between these lines 
is a group of granitic mountains, running from 3° 
to 7° north latitude, in a direction parallel to the 
equator, but not united tothe Andes. These three 
chains have no active voleanoes, and none of their 
summits enter the line of perpetual snow. They are 
separated by plains, which are closed toward the 
west and open toward the east; and they are so 
low, that were the Atlantic to rise 320 feet at the 
mouth of the Orinoco and 1280 feet at the mouth 
of the Amazon, more than the half of South Ame- 
rica would be covered, and the eastern declivity of 
the Andes would become a shore of the ocean. 
We now accompany the travellers on their route 
from the northern side of the Llanos to the banks 
of the Apure, in the province of Varinas. After 
passing two nights on horseback, they arrived at a 
little farm called El] Cayman, where was a house 
surrounded by some smal] huts covered with reeds 
and skins. ‘They found an old negro who had the 
management of the farm during his master’s ab- 
sence. Although he told them of herds composed 
of several thousand cows, they asked in vain for 
milk, and were obliged to content themselves with 
some muddy and fetid water drawn from a neigh- 
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