434 
VEGETATION OF 
mences the forest. On the north of the Amazon, from 
its mouth to beyond Montealegre, are open plains ; but 
opposite the mouth of the Tapajoz at Santarem, the 
forest begins, and appears to extend up to the Serras of 
Carumam, on the Rio Branco, and thence stretches west, 
to join the wooded country on the eastern side of the 
Orinooko. West of that river, it commences south of 
the Vichada, and, crossing over the upper waters of the 
Guaviare and Uaupes, reach the Andes east of Pasto, 
where we commenced our survey. 
The forests of no other part of the world are so exten- 
sive and unbroken as this. Those of Central Europe are 
trifling in comparison ; nor in India are they very con- 
tinuous or extensive; while the rest of Asia seems to 
be a country of thinly wooded plains, and steppes, and 
deserts. Africa contains some large forests, situated on 
the east and west coasts, and in the interior south of 
the equator; but the whole of them would bear but a 
small proportion to that of the Amazon. In North 
America alone is there anything approaching to it, where 
the whole country east of the Mississippi and about the 
great lakes, is, or has been, an almost uninterrupted 
extent of woodland. 
In a general survey of the earth, we may therefore 
look upon the New World as pre-eminently the land of 
forests, contrasting strongly with the Old, where steppes 
and deserts are the most characteristic features. 
The boundaries of the Amazonian forest have not 
hitherto been ascertained with much accuracy. The open 
plains of Caguan have been supposed much more ex- 
tensive than they really are ; but I have very nearly 
