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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Further West The Surface Of The Soil
Seems To Present But Slight Undulations; But No Measure Of Height Has
Been Made Beyond The Meridian Of Villaboa.
Considering the system of
the mountains of Brazil in their real limits, we find, except some
conglomerates, the same absence of secondary formations as in the
system of the mountains of the Orinoco (group of Parime).
These
secondary formations, which rise to considerable heights in the
Cordillera of Venezuela and Cumana, belong only to the low regions of
Brazil.
B. PLAINS (LLANOS) OR BASINS.
In that part of South America situated on the east of the Andes we
have successively examined three systems of mountains, those of the
shore of Venezuela, of the Parime and Brazil: we have seen that this
mountainous region, which equals the Cordillera of the Andes, not in
mass, but in area and horizontal section of surface, is three times
less elevated, much less rich in precious metals adhering to the rock,
destitute of recent traces of volcanic fire and, with the exception of
the coast of Venezuela, little exposed to the violence of earthquakes.
The average height of the three systems diminishes from north to
south, from 750 to 400 toises; those of the culminant points (maxima
of the height of each group) from 1350 to 1000 or 900 toises. Hence it
results that the loftiest chain, with the exception of the small
insulated system of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, is the
Cordillera of the shore of Venezuela, which is itself but a
continuation of the Andes.
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