GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA. 
93 
Pampas of Buenos Ayres. As the region of forests com- 
prises at once the plains and the mountains, it extends from 
18° south to 7° and 8° north,* and occupies an extent of 
near a hundred and twenty thousand square leagues. This 
forest of South America, for in fact there is only one, is six 
times larger than France. It is known to Europeans only 
on the shores of a few rivers, by which it is traversed ; and 
has its openings, the extent of which is in proportion to that 
of the forests. We shall soon skirt the marshy savannahs, 
between the Upper Orinoco, the Conorichite, and the Cassi- 
quiare, in the latitude of 3° and 4°. There are other open- 
mgs, or as they are called, ‘ clear savannahs, ’t in the same 
parallel, between the sources of the Mao and the Bio de 
Aguas Blancas, south of the Sierra de Pacaraima. These 
last savannahs, which are inhabited by Caribs, and nomad 
Macusis, he near the frontiers of Dutch and French 
Uuiana. 
Having noticed the geological constitution of South Ame- 
rica, we shall now mark its principal features. The western 
coasts are bordered by an enormous wall of mountains, rich 
in precious metals wherever volcanic fire has not pierced 
through the eternal snow. This is the Cordillera of the 
Andes. Summits of trap-porphyry rise beyond three thou- 
sand three hundred toises, and the mean height of the 
chain J is one thousand eight hundred and fifty toises. It 
stretches in the direction of a meridian, and sends into each 
hemisphere a latera 1 branch, in the latitudes of 10° north 
tS of !h Tr- ThC ftr f of the - branches 
that of the coast of Caracas, is of considerable length, and 
forms in fact a chain. The second branch, the Cordillera of 
\', ith T7- ! ,’ JUt this colossal group al »>ost belongs to the 
the east 8 * ” aZ ’ °" W llC1 11 fotn,s a Promontory or spur, directed toward 
• , . the west, in consequence of the Llanos of Manso, and the Pampas 
I q<> UaT J no° S ’ ^' e f °ro sts do no t- extend generally beyond the parallels of 
S- Pki sou ^ latitude; but to the east, in Brazil (in the capitanias of 
*n ablo and Rio Grande), as well as in Paraguay, on the borders of the 
arana, they advance as far as 25° south. 
+ , av nnnas limpias , that is to say, clear of trees. 
f /*■ ” ^ ew Grenada, Quito, and Peru, according to measurements 
a en by Bouguer, La Condamine, an d myself. 
