172 
PHYSICAL HISTORY OF THE 
South America, run along the western coast; 
both have a great eastern promontory, — New¬ 
foundland in the northern continent, and Cape 
St. Roque in the southern; — and though the 
resemblance between the inland elevations is 
perhaps less striking, yet the Canadian range, 
the White Mountains, and the Alleghanies 
may very fairly be compared to the table-lands 
of Guiana and Brazil, and the Serra do Mar. 
Similar correspondences may be traced among 
the river systems. The Amazons and the St. 
Lawrence, though so different in dimensions, 
remind us of each other by their trend and 
geographical position; and while the one is 
fed by the largest river system in the world, 
the other drains the most extensive lake sur¬ 
faces known to exist in immediate contiguity. 
The Orinoco, with its bay, recalls Hudson’s 
Bay and its many tributaries, and the Rio 
Magdalena may be said to be the South Amer¬ 
ican Mackenzie; while the Rio de la Plata 
represents geographically our Mississippi, and 
the Paraguay recalls the Missouri. The Pa¬ 
rana may be compared to the Ohio; the Pih 
comayo, Yermejo, and Salado rivers, to the 
River Platte, the Arkansas, and the Red River 
