THE AMAZON VALLEY, 



301 



Along the Andes of Quito, from Pasto to Guancabamba, it 

 reaches close up to the eastern base of the mountains, and 

 even ascends their lower slopes. In the moderately elevated 

 country between the river Huallaga and Maranon, the forest 

 extends only over the eastern portion, commencing in the 

 neighbourhood of Moyobamba. Further on, to the east of 

 Cuzco and La Paz, it spreads high up on the slopes of the 

 Bolivian Andes, and passing a little to the west of Santa Cruz 

 de la Sierra, turns off to the north-east, crossing the Tapajoz 

 and Xingu rivers somewhere about the middle of their course, 

 and the Tocantms not far above its junction with the Araguaya, 

 and then passes over to the river Parnaiba, which it follows to 

 its mouth. 



The Island of Marajo, at the mouth of the Amazon, has its 

 eastern half open plains, while in the western the forest 

 commences. On the north of the Amazon, from its mouth to 

 beyond Montealegre, are open plains ; but opposite the mouth 

 of the Tapajoz at Santarem, the forest begins, and appears to 

 extend up to the Serras of Carumani, on the Rio Branco, and 

 thence stretches west, to join the wooded country on the 

 eastern side of the Orinoko. West of that river, it commences 

 south of the Vichada, and, crossing over the upper waters of 

 the Guaviare and Uaupes, reach the Andes east of Pasto, 

 where we commenced our survey. 



The forests of no other part of the world are so extensive 

 and unbroken as this. Those of Central Europe are trifling 

 in comparison ; nor in India are they very continuous or 

 extensive; while the rest of Asia seems to be a country of 

 thinly wooded plains, and steppes, and deserts. Africa 

 contains some large forests, situated on, the east and west 

 coasts, and in the interior south of the equator ; but the whole 

 of them would bear but a small proportion to that of the 

 Amazon. In North America alone is there anything approach- 

 ing to it, where the whole country east of the Mississippi and 

 about the great lakes, is, or has been, an almost uninterrupted 

 extent of woodland. 



In a general survey of the earth, we may therefore look upon 

 the New World as pre-eminently the land of forests, contrasting 

 strongly with the Old, where steppes and deserts are the most 

 characteristic features. 



The boundaries of the Amazonian forest have not hitherto 



