401 



square marine leagues, of which 92,000 are a 

 mountainous country, no groupe rises to the 

 region of perpetual snows ; none even attains the 

 height of 1,400 toises. This lowering of the 

 mountains in the eastern region of the New 

 Continent, extends as far as 60° of north lati- 

 tude ; while in the western part, on the pro- 

 longation of the Cordilleras of the Andes, the 

 highest summits rise in Mexico (lat. 18° 59'), to 

 2,770 toises, and in the Rocky Mountains (lat. 

 37° to 40°) to 1,900 toises. The insulated 

 groupe of the Alleghanies, which corresponds 

 by its eastern position and direction with the 

 groupe of Brazil, does not surpass 1,040 toises*. 

 The lofty summits therefore, exceeding the 

 height of Mont Blanc, belong only to the longi- 

 tudinal chain that bounds the basin of the Pa- 

 cific Ocean, from the 55° south to the 68° north, 

 that is to say, the Cordillera of the Andes. The 

 only insulated groupe that can be compared 

 with the snowy summits of the equinoxial Andes, 

 and which attains the height of nearly 3,000 

 toises, is the Sierra de Santa Marta ; it is not 

 placed on the east of the Cordilleras, but be- 

 tween the prolongation of two of their branches, 

 those of Merida and Veragua. The Cordilleras, 



* The culminant point of the Alleghanies is Mount Wash- 

 ington, in New Hampshire, lat. 44|°. According to Cap- 

 tain Partridge it is 6634 English feet. 



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