569 



from the Sena da Canastra and the Campos 

 Parecis towards the province of Paraguay; 

 on the west, by the Andes of Upper Peru 

 and Chili ; and on the north -west, by the 

 ridge of the partition of the waters which 

 runs from the counter-fort of Santa Cruz de 

 la Sierra, across the plains of the Chiquitos, 

 towards the Serras of Albuquerque (lat. 19° 

 20') and San Fernando. That part only of this 

 basin lying* on the west of the Rio Paraguay, 

 and which is entirely covered with gramma 

 (thick forests extend towards Parana, and 

 the sources of the Uruguay), is 70,000 square 

 leagues. This surface of the Pampas or 

 Llanos of Manse, Tucuman, Buenos Ayres, 

 and eastern Patagonia, exceeds consequently 

 four times the surface of the whole of France. 

 The Andes of Chili narrow the Pampas by 

 the two counterforts of Salta and Cordova*: 

 the latter promontory, of which we know 

 with precision the extent by the astronomical 



Geographers also figure a chain of mountains between 

 28° and 34 1° of latitude, in the province of the Missions and 

 the Cisplatine] province of Brazil, a chain supposed to se- 

 parate the waters of the Uraguay from those of the eastern 

 coast ; but these Cordilleras are probably not 200 toises high. 

 In comparing the maps of d'Anville, Varela, Dobrizhoffer, 

 and Azara, we perceive that with the progress of geography 

 the mountains of those countries gradually disappear. 

 * Vol. vi> p. 418. 



