ELEVATION OF THE LAND. 
84:5 
country appears to advance in Dutch and Drench Guiana, 
as i'ar as within twenty to twenty-five leagues of the coast. 
The numerous cataracts of the rivers of Surinam, Maroni, 
and Oyapoc, prove the extent and the prolongation of rocky 
ridges ; hut in tliose regions nothing indicates the existence 
of Continued plains or table-lands some hundred toises 
high, fitted for the cultivation of the plants of the tem- 
perate zone. 
The system of the mountains of Parime suipasses in 
extent nineteen times that of the whole of Switzerland. 
Even considering the mountainous group of the sources of 
the Eio K'cgro and the Xie as independent or insulated 
amidst the plains, we still find the Sierra Parime (between 
^laypures and the sources of the Oyapoc) to be 340 
leagues in length; its peatest breadth (the rocks of 
Imataca, near the delta of tlie Orinoco, at the sources of 
the Bio Paru) is 140 leagues. lu the group of the Pariine, 
as well as in the group of the mountaius of central Asia, 
between the Himalaya and the Altai, the partial chains are 
often interrupted and have no uniform parallelism. To- 
wards the south-west, however (between the strait of Para- 
guan, the mouth of the Bio Zama, and the Esmeralda), 
the line of the mountains is generally in the direction 
of N. 70° W. Sucli is also the position of a distant coast, 
that of Portuguese, Frencli, Dutch, and English Guiana, 
from Cape Xorth to the mouth of the Orinoco ; such is the 
mean direction of the course of the Bio Negro and Aupura. 
It is desirable to fix our attention on the angles formed by 
the partial chains, in diflerent regions of America, with the 
meridians ; because on less extended surfaces, for instance 
in Germany, we find also this singular co-existence of 
groups of neighbouring mountains following laws of direc- 
tion altogether diflerent, though every separate group 
exhibits the greatest uniformity in the line of chains. 
The soil on which the mountains of Parime rise, is 
slightly convex. By barometric measures I found that 
between 3° and 4° of north latitude, the plains are elevated 
from 1(10 to ISO toises above sea-level. This height will 
appear considerable if we reflect that at the loot of the 
Andes of Peru, at Tomependa, 900 leagues from the coast 
of the Atlantit Ocean, the Llanos or plains of the Amazon 
