286 
CONriGUBAIION OF THF CONTINFOT. 
Section I. 
Configuration of the Country-Tnequalities of the Soil-Chains anJ 
Groups of Mountains -Divisionary Ridges— Plains or Llanos. 
Which triangular masses 
hemtnhere t’’® southern 
resembles Africa ^ts exterior configuration it 
resembles Ahica more than AustraUa. The southern ex- 
fron“ tS Ca Je of r «« pP''^ed, that in sailing 
nr fir to Cape Horii 
ir ' T ^’i doubling the southern point of Van 
eai™r P'»l>»''‘*«n "> »e adviuice 
which M fh /°^^t ' part of the 571,000 square sea leao-ues* 
di r “vered with mountris 
distributed in cliaius, or gathered together in groups Tiio 
S "j: '■“"".“s >“5 ■t„?-pS'b.„:s 
covered with forests or gramma, flatter than in Eurone and 
rising progressively, at the distance of 300 leagues from the 
coast, between 30 and 170 toises above the leveTof t^sea 
The most considerable mountainous cluiin in South America 
--rdi„gtotheg;eatoTdh 
mension ot the continent ; it is not central like the Eiironeau 
annheYlbr .tl>e sea-shore, IDm the Himalaya 
Sean W • almost on the coast of the Pacific 
Ucean. Eefernng to the profile which I have givent of the 
Se S W if’ Amazon, we find 
the land low towards the east, m an inclined plane at an 
anf * seconds on a length of 600 leagues- 
and if, in the ancient state of our planet, tlic Atlantic Ocean bv 
some extraordinap' cause, ever rose to 1100 leet above its pre- 
sent level (a height one-third less than the table-lands of Spain 
and Bavaria), the waves must, in the province of Taen de T?™ 
h.™ broken upon .bo rockf.'bTboSo tfem 
* Almost double the extent of Europe 
HumbXly A.'h” BrW^TsIr observations of 
