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 Distinctive Characteristics Of
The Group Of The Mountains Of Parime Are The Rocks Of Granite And
Gneiss-Granite, The Total Absence Of Calcareous Secondary Formations,
And The Shelves Of Bare Rock (The Tsy Of The Chinese Deserts), Which
Occupy Immense Spaces In The Savannahs.
5. GROUP OF THE BRAZIL MOUNTAINS.
This group has hitherto been marked on the maps in a very erroneous
way. The temperate table-lands and real chains of 300 to 500 toises
high have been confounded with countries of exceedingly hot
temperature, and of which the undulating surface presents only ranges
of hills variously grouped. But the observations of scientific
travellers have recently thrown great light on the orography of
Portuguese America. The mountainous region of Brazil, of which the
mean height rises at least to 400 toises, is comprehended within very
narrow limits, nearly between 18 and 28 degrees south latitude; it
does not appear to extend, between the provinces of Goyaz and
Matogrosso, beyond longitude 53 degrees west of the meridian of Paris.
When we regard in one view the eastern configuration of North and
South America, we perceive that the coast of Brazil and Guiana, from
Cape Saint Roque to the mouth of the Orinoco (stretching from
south-east to north-west), corresponds with that of Labrador, as the
coast from Cape Saint Roque to the Rio de la Plata corresponds with
that of the United States (stretching from south-west to north-east).
The chain of the Alleghenies is opposite to the latter coast, as the
principal Cordilleras of Brazil are nearly parallel to the shore of
the provinces of Porto Seguro, Rio Janeiro and Rio Grande.
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