410 



the half of this chain belongs to South America, 

 and runs along its western coast. On the north 

 of the isthmus of Cupica and of Panama, after 

 an immense lowering, it assumes the appear- 

 ance of a nearly central ridge, forming a rocky 

 dyke that joins the great continent of North 

 America to that of the south. The low lands 

 on the east of the Andes of Guatimala and 

 New Spain, appear to have been overwhelmed 

 by the floods, and now form the bottom of the 

 Caribbean Sea. As the continent beyond the 

 parallel of Florida again widens towards the 

 east, the Cordilleras of Durango and New 

 Mexico, as well as the Rocky Mountains which 

 are a continuation of those Cordilleras, appear 

 to be thrown anew towards the west, that is, 

 towards the coast of the Pacific Ocean; but 

 they still remain eight or ten times more re- 

 mote from it than in the southern hemisphere. 

 We may consider as the two extremities of the 

 Andes, the rock or granitic isle of Diego 

 Ramirez, south of Cape Horn, and the moun- 

 tains that reach the mouth * of the Mac- 



* I have fixed the longitude of the northern extremity 

 of the chain of the Andes in the Rocky Mountains, according 

 to the corrections made recently by Captain Franklin, in Mr. 

 Mackenzie's map. The errors in latitudes 67° and 69o, ap- 

 pear from 4» to 6° longitude 5 but in the parallel of the Slave 

 Lake they are almost nothing. (Mouth of the Mackenzie 

 river, according to Franklin, 128° ; according to Mackenzie, 



