307 



of the Pyrennees *. On this account, the vast 

 plains of the Amazon, the Madeira, and the 

 Rio Negro, are not so distinctly bounded as 

 the Llanos of Caraccas, and the Pampas of 

 Buenos Ayres. As the region of forests com- 

 prises at once the plains and the mountains, it 

 extends from 18° South f to 7° and 8° North, 

 and occupies an extent of near a hundred and 

 twenty thousand square leagues. This forest of 

 South America, for in fact there is only one, is 

 six times larger than France. It is known to 

 Europeans only on the shores of some rivers, by 

 which it is traversed ; and has it's openings, the 

 extent of which is in proportion to that of the 

 forest. We shall soon skirt the marshy savan- 

 nahs, between the Upper Oroonoko, the Cono- 

 richite, and the Cassiquiare, in the latitude of 

 3° and 4°. There are other openings, or sava-* 



* We must except the westernmost part of the Cordillera 

 pf Chiquitos, between Cochabamba and Santa Cruz de la 

 Sierra, where the summits are covered with snow j but this 

 colossal group almost still belongs to the Andes de la Paz 

 of which it forms a promontory or spur, directed toward the 

 East. 



f To the West, in consequence of the Llanos of Manso, 

 and the Pampas de Huanacos, the forests do not extend 

 generally beyond the parallels of 18° or 19° South latitude ; 

 but to the East, in Brazil (in the capitanias of St. Paul and 

 Rio Grande), as well as in Paraguay, on the borders of the 

 Parana, they advance as far as 25© South. 



x 2 



