Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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The
Prolongation Of This Promontory Has Given Rise To The Idea That The
Andes Are Linked With A Series Of Hills Which The Serras Dos Parecis,
The Serra Melgueira, And The Supposed Cordillera Of San Fernando,
Throw Out Towards The West.
This almost unknown part of the frontiers
of Brazil and Upper Peru merits the attention of travellers.
It is
understood that the ancient mission of San Jose de Chiquitos (nearly
latitude 17 degrees, longitude 67 degrees 10 minutes, supposing Santa
Cruz de la Sierra, in latitude 17 degrees 25 minutes, longitude 66
degrees 47 minutes) is situated in the plains, and that the mountains
of the spur of Cochabamba terminate between the Guapaix (Rio de
Mizque) and the Parapiti, which lower down takes the names of Rio San
Miguel and Rio Sara. The savannahs of the province of Chiquitos
communicate on the north with those of Moxos, and on the south with
those of Chaco; but a ridge or line of partition of the waters is
formed by the intersection of two gently sloping plains. This ridge
takes its origin on the north of La Plata (Chuquisaca) between the
sources of the Guapaix and the Cachimayo, and it ascends from the
parallel of 20 degrees to that of 15 1/2 degrees south latitude,
consequently on the north-east, towards the isthmus of Villabella.
From this point, one of the most important of the whole hydrography of
America, we may follow the line of the partition of the water to the
Cordillera of the shore (Serra do Mar). It is seen winding (latitude
17 to 20 degrees) between the northern sources of the Araguay, the
Maranhao or Tocantines, the Rio San Francisco and the southern sources
of the Parana. This second line of partition which enters the group of
the Brazil mountains on the frontier of Capitania of Goyaz separates
the flowings of the basin of the Amazon from those of the Rio de la
Plata, and corresponds, south of the equator, with the line we have
indicated in the northern hemisphere (latitude 2 to 4 degrees), on the
limits of the basins of the Amazon and the Lower Orinoco.
If the plains of the Amazon (taking that denomination in the
geognostic sense we have given it) are in general distinguished from
the Llanos of Venezuela and the Pampas of Buenos Ayres, by the extent
and thickness of their forests, we are the more struck by the
continuity of the savannahs in that part running from south to north.
It would seem as though this sea of verdure stretched forth an arm
from the basin of Buenos Ayres, by the Llanos of Tucuman, Manso,
Chuco, the Chiquitos, and the Moxos, to the Pampas del Sacramento and
the savannahs of Napo, Guaviare, Meta and Apure. This arm crosses,
between 7 and 3 degrees south latitude, the basin of the forests of
the Amazon; and the absence of trees on so great an extent of
territory, together with the preponderance which the small
monocotyledonous plants have acquired, is a phenomenon of the
geography of plants which belongs perhaps to the action of ancient
pelagic currents or other partial revolutions of our planet.
5. PLAINS OF THE RIO DE LA PLATA, AND OF PATAGONIA, FROM THE
SOUTH-WESTERN SLOPE OF THE GROUP OF THE BRAZIL MOUNTAINS TO THE STRAIT
OF MAGELLAN; FROM 20 TO 53 DEGREES OF LATITUDE.
These plains correspond with those of the Mississippi and of Canada in
the northern hemisphere. If one of their extremities approaches less
nearly to the polar regions, the other enters much further into the
region of palm-trees. That part of this vast basin extending from the
eastern coast towards the Rio Paraguay does not present a surface so
perfectly smooth as the part situated on the west and the south-east
of the Rio de la Plata, and which has been known for ages by the name
of Pampas, derived from the Peruvian or Quichua language.* (* Hatan
Pampa signifies in that language, a great plain. We find the word
Pampa also in Riobamba and Guallabamba; the Spaniards, in order to
soften the geographical names, changing the p into b.) Geognostically
speaking these two regions of east and west form only one basin,
bounded on the east by the Sierra de Villarica or do Espinhaco, which
loses itself in the Capitania of San Paul, near the parallel of 24
degrees; issuing on the north-east by little hills, from the Serra da
Canastra and the Campos Parecis towards the province of Paraguay; on
the west by the Andes of Upper Peru and Chile; and on the north-west
by the ridge of the partition of the waters which runs from the spur
of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, across the plains of the Chiquitos,
towards the Serras of Albuquerque (latitude 19 degrees 2 minutes) and
San Fernando. That part only of this basin lying on the west of the
Rio Paraguay, and which is entirely covered with gramina, is 70,000
square leagues. This surface of the Pampas or Llanos of Manse,
Tucuman, Buenos Ayres and eastern Patagonia is consequently four times
greater than the surface of the whole of France. The Andes of Chile
narrow the Pampas by the two spurs of Salta and Cordova; the latter
promontory forms so projecting a point that there remains (latitude 31
to 32 degrees) a plain only 45 leagues broad between the eastern
extremity of the Sierra de Cordova and the right bank of the river
Paraguay, stretching in the direction of a meridian, from the town of
Nueva Coimbra to Rosario, below Santa Fe. Far beyond the southern
frontiers of the old viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, between the Rio
Colorado and the Rio Negro (latitude 38 to 39 degrees) groups of
mountains seem to rise in the form of islands in the middle of a
muriatiferous plain. A tribe of Indians of the south (Tehuellet) have
there long borne the characteristic name of men of the mountains
(Callilehet) or Serranos.
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