PEOPOETIONS OF THE ILAKOS. 
367 
II. Plains : 
Square 
Marijie Leaguci. 
Llanos of the Lower Orinoco, the Meta, and the 
Guaviare 
Plains of the Amazon 
Pampas of Rio de la Plata, and Patagonia 
Plains between the eastern chain of the Andes 
■29,000 
260,t00 
135,200 
of Cundinamarca and the chain of Choco 
Plains of the shore, on the west of the Andes .... 
12,300 
20,000 
45C.900 
The whole surface of South America contains 571,300 
ssquare leagues (20 to a degree), and the proportion of the 
mountainous country to the region of the plains is as 1 to 
.S-9. The latter region, on the east of the Andes, comprises 
more than 424,600 square leagues, half of which consists of 
savannahs ; that is to say, it is covered with gramina. 
Section II. 
General Partition of ground — Direction and inclination of the strata 
Relative height of the formations above the level of the Ocean. 
In the preceding section wo have examiriod the inequalities 
•of the surface of the soil, that is to say, the general structure 
of the mountains, and the form of the b.asiiis rising between 
those variously grouped mountains. Tuese mountains are 
sometimes longitudinal, running in narrow bands or chains, 
similar to the veins that preserve their directions at great 
•distaiices, as the Andes, the littoral chain of Venezuela, the 
•Serra do Alar of Brazil, aifd the AUeghanies of the United 
States. Sometimes they are in masses with irregular forms, 
in which upheavings seem to have taken place as on a laby- 
rinth of crevices or a heap of veins, as tor example in the 
Sierra Pari me and the Serra dos A^’ertentes. These modes of 
formation are linked with a geognostic hypothesis, which has 
at least the recommendation of being founded on facts ob- 
served in remote times, and which strongly characterize the 
■chains and groups of mountains. Considerations 
aspect of a country are independent of those which indicate 
the nature of the soil, the heterogeneity of matter, the super- 
position of rocks, and the direction and inclination of strata. 
