309 



s€€ond, the Cordillera of Chiquitos and of the 

 sources of the Guapore, is very rich in gold* 

 and widens toward the East, in Brazil, into 

 vast table-lands, of a mild and temperate cli- 

 mate. Between these two transverse chains 

 contiguous to the Andes, an isolated group of 

 granitic mountains is found, from 3° to 7° of 

 North latitude ; which runs equally in a direc- 

 tion parallel to the Equator, but, not passing 

 the meridian of 71° terminates abruptly to- 

 ward the West, and is not united to the 

 Andes of New Grenada, These three trans- 

 verse chains have no active volcanoes ; we are 

 ignorant whether the southernmost, like the two 

 others, be destitute of trachytes or trap por- 

 phyry. None of their summits enter the limit 

 of perpetual snows ; and the mean height of the 

 Cordillera of La Parime, and of the littoral 

 chain of Caraccas, does not reach six hundred 

 toises, though some summits rise fourteen hun- 

 dred toises above the level of the sea The 

 three transverse chains are separated by plains 

 entirely closed toward the W est, and open to- 



* The longitude of Porto-Cabello is 70° 37' 3" West of 

 Paris. 



+ We do not reckon here, as belonging to the chain of 

 the coast, the Nevados and Paramos of Merida and of 

 Truxillo, which are a prolongation of the Andes of New 

 Grenada. The chain of Caraccas begins only to the East of 

 71° of longitude. 



