[ 586 J 
ftratum. Parallel to the Andes, is the Sierra, another 
long ridge of mountains, that run between the Andes 
and the fea ; and “ thefe two ridges of mountains run 
“ within fight of one another, and almoft equally, 
“ for above a thoufand leagues together being 
each, at a medium, about twenty leagues wide. The 
gold and filver mines wrought by the Spaniards, are 
found in a tradl of country parallel to the direction of 
thefe, and extending through a great part of the length 
of them. 
4f. The fame thing is found to obtain in North 
America alfo. The great lakes, which give rife to 
the river St. Laurence, are kept up by a long ridge of 
mountains, that run nearly parallel to the eaftern coaft. 
In defcending from thefe towards the fea, the fame 
fets -f- of ftrata, and in the fame order, are generally 
met with throughout the greateft part of their length. 
46. In Great Britain, we have another inftance to 
the fame purpofe, where the direction of the ridge 
varies about a point from due north and fouth, lying 
nearly from X N. by E. to S. by W. There are many 
more inftances of this to be met with in the world, if 
we may judge from circu alliances, which make it 
highly probable, that it obtains in a great number of 
places, and in feveral they feem to put it almoft out 
of doubt. 
47. The reader is not to fuppofe, however, that, 
in any inftances, the higheft rife of the ridge, and 
* See Acofla’s Natural Hiftory of the Indies. 
+ See Lewis Evans’s Map and Account of North America. 
J Of this I could give many undoubted proofs, if it would not 
too far exceed the limits of my prefent defign, and which, for that 
reafon, I am obliged to omit. 
the 
