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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It Is Also Worthy Of Remark That In The
Southern Hemisphere The Cordillera Of The Andes Sends An Immense
Counterpoise
Eastward in the promontory of the Sierra Nevada de
Cochabamba, whence begins the ridge stretching between the tributary
streams of
The Madeira and the Paraguay to the lofty group of the
mountains of Brazil or Minas Geraes. Three transversal chains (the
coast-mountains of Venezuela, of the Orinoco or Parime, and the Brazil
mountains) tend to join the longitudinal chain (the Andes) either by
an intermediary group (between the lake of Valencia and Tocuyo), or by
ridges formed by the intersection of counter-slopes in the plains. The
two extremities of the three Llanos which communicate by land-straits,
the Llanos of the Lower Orinoco, the Amazon, and the Rio de la Plata
or of Buenos Ayres, are steppes covered with gramina, while the
intermediary Llano (that of the Amazon) is a thick forest. With
respect to the two land-straits forming bands directed from north to
south (from the Apure to Caqueta across the Provincia de los Llanos,
and the sources of the Mamori to Rio Pilcomayo, across the province of
Mocos and Chiquitos) they are bare and grassy steppes like the plains
of Caracas and Buenos Ayres.
In the immense extent of land east of the Andes, comprehending more
than 480,000 square sea leagues, of which 92,000 are a mountainous
tract of country, no group rises to the region of perpetual snow; none
even attains the height of 1400 toises.
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