306 



These three transverse chains, or rather these 

 three groups of mountains stretching from West 

 to East, within the limits of the torrid zone, are 

 separated by tracts entirely level, the plains of 

 Caraccas, or of the Lower Oroonoko ; the plains 

 of the Amazon and the Rio Negro ; and the 

 plains of Buenos Ayres, or of La Plata. I do 

 not use the name of valley, because the Lower 

 Oroonoko and the Amazon, far from flowing in 

 a valley, form but a little furrow in the midst 

 of a vast plain. The two basins, placed at the 

 extremities of South America, are savannahs or 

 steppes, pasturage without trees ; the interme- 

 diate basin, which receives the equatorial rains 

 during the whole year, is almost entirely one 

 vast forest, in which no other road is known 

 than the rivers. That strength of vegetation, 

 which conceals the soil, renders also the uni- 

 formity of it's level less perceptible; and the 

 plains of Caraccas and La Plata alone bear this 

 name. The three basins we have just described 

 are called, in the language of the colonists, the 

 Llanos of Varinas and of Caraccas, the hosques 

 or selvas (forests) of the Amazon, and the Pam- 

 pas of Buenos Ayres. The trees not only for 

 the most part cover the plains of the Amazon, 

 from the Cordillera of Chiquitos, as far as that 

 of Pari me ; they crown also these two chains 

 of mountains, which rarely attain the height 



