The Orinoco rises in the western defiles of the Parime Mountains, and flows first west, then curves north and east, describing nearly a semicircle, and ultimately forming a delta of vast extent, intersected by numerous channels. This great river is joined by a large number of tributaries both from the Andes and from the Parime Mountains. The navigation of this noble stream is occasionally interrupted by rapids, none of which, however, are very formidable, and most of its tributaries are also navigable.

The great river AMAZON, the "Mediterranean of South America," drains a much larger area, and affords a greater extent of inland navigation, than any other river in the world. Its course

is more than 4,100 miles in length.

The Marañon, which rises in the small lake of Lauricocha, on the high tableland of Pasco, at an elevation of more than 14,000 feet, is generally regarded as the main stream of the Amazon, though the Ucayali and other tributaries, which come from a more southern source, are of greater length. From Lake Lauricocha, the Marañon flows rapidly north between the two main cordilleras of the Andes, descending about 10,000 feet in little more than 100 miles, bending at Jaen to the north-east, and, breaking through the mountains by a long defile, it enters the great plain as a magnificent stream, over 2,500 feet wide and freely navigable for large vessels.

Flowing now east, the Amazon is joined by several large tributaries on the left, and on the right by the considerably larger streams of the Huallaga and the Ucayali-the latter of which is regarded by some geographers as the true Amazon, it being superior both in length and volume to the Marañon. It then receives successively, on the left, the Napo, Putumayo, Japura, and Negro,2 and on the right, the Javari, Purus, Madeira, Tapajos, Xingu, and Tocantins. All these are streams of the first magnitude, the Madeira having a course of 2,000 miles, and the Negro of 1,400 miles. The breadth of the Amazon increases from one mile at its confluence with the Napo, to three miles at the confluence of the Rio Negro, to upwards of four miles below Obydos, and the great river finally enters the sea by an estuary 50 miles wide at its mouth."

The extent of inland water-communication afforded by the Amazon and its numerous tributaries is unparalleled-on the main stream there is navigable water for trans-Atlantic steamers from Para to the town of Iquitos, a distance of 3.000 miles. Nearly all its great tributaries are also navigable for several hundred miles. The Madeira is obstructed by numerous falls, which might be avoided by lateral canals.

The enormous volume of water discharged by the Amazon forms an easterly current perceptible 200 miles from the coast, while the tides are felt in the main stream as far as OBY DOS, 400 miles from the sea, and even in the smaller affluents of its great tributaries at distances of above 500 miles inland.

1. About 130 miles from its source, the Orinoco throws off from the main channel several branches which join the Rio Negro, an affluent of the Amazon. The best-known branch, which bears the name of the Casignare, has a length of nearly two hundred miles before it joins the Negro. The two great riverbasins are thus united by natural channels, so that boats may pass from the mouth of the Orinoco into the Negro, thence into the Amazon, and down the Latter stream to its outlet-thus in king the circuit of a large portion of the South American continent, and passing round the extensive region of the Guiana mountain system. There is no other instance in the world of the permanent bifurcation of two streams of such magnitude, though a few similar examples occur elsewhere among streams on a smaller scale.

2. The remarkable connection of the latter with the Orinoco by the Casiquiare has been already noticed. It is also worthy of note that a narrow portage of three miles, consisting of grassy pain, alone divides the Aguapehy, one of the small tribu taries of the Upper Paraguay, from a similar affluent of the Guapore River, one of the main sources of the Madeira. The basins of the Amazon and the La Plata are thus capable of easy union with one another, and, when the savannalis are temporarily Laid under water by the rains, the canoes of the Indians actually pass from the one to the other.

3. The most frequented channel of entrance to the Amazon is formed by the Rio do Pará and the Tajapura Channel, which encircle the large island of Marajo.

Speaking of the vast extent of the Amazon river-system, Mr. Bates, in bis graphic description of this region,' says that all we read and hear of the vast size of the Amazons and its affluents, conveys little or no idea of the boundless extent of this prodigious river-system as a whole. One must have lived for months in these regions in order to realise how greatly the liquid element here predominates over the land. This labyrinth of streams is not so much a vast network of rivers as an inland fresh-water sea filled with islands. It has been termed, indeed, the "Mediterranean of South America," for not only is the main stream broad, deep, and navigable by large vessels at every season of the year, but hundreds of tributaries, and numberless side channels, connected with lakes, scores of miles in circumference, add their quota to the great sum of navigable waters.2

The Rio de la Flata3 is an immense estuary, formed by the junction of the Parana and the Uruguay.

The Parana, the main stream, rises under the name of the Rio Grande on the western slopes of the Brazilian coast ranges. Its course is interrupted by numer. ous falls, the most remarkable of which are the Salto Grande. At Corrientes, it is joined by the Paraguay, which rises in the sterile upland known as the 'Campos de Parecis,' and receives from the Andes several large tribut try streams, such as the Pilcomayo and the Vermejo. During the rainy season, the Paraguay inundates the adjoining plains to a depth of 10 or 12 feet. Below Corrientes, the Parana flows south, receiving, near Santa Fé, the Salado from the plateau of El Despoblado, and bending at Rosario to the south-east, finally uniting with the Uruguay a few miles north-west of Buenos Ayres to form the extensive but shallow estuary of the La Plata. The Uruguay rises in the Serra Catharina, and flows, for the most part, parallel to the Parana. From its source to within 200 miles of its mouth, its navigation is repeatedly interrupted by cataracts. The immense volume of water discharged by the Parana and the Uruguay, through their common outlet, the Rio de la Plata, forms a perceptible fresh-water current at a distance of 100 miles from the coast.

Of the smaller rivers, the principal are the Atrato and Magdalena, to the west of the Orinoco; the Essequibo, Demerara, Berbice, Corentyn, Surinam, and Maroni, between the Orinoco and the Amazon; the Maranhão, Paranahyba, San Francisco, and Parahyba, between the Amazon and the La Plata ; and the Colorado, Negro, Chubut, and Santa Cruz, south of the La Plata.

The Atrato waters the rugged valley between the two western cordilleras of the Colombian Andes, and flows north into the Gulf of Darien. The Magdalena, and its chief tributary, the Cauca, drain the valleys that intervene between the three principal chains of the Andes-the most easterly of which divides its basin from that of the Orinoco.

Of the rivers that enter the sea between the mouths of the Orinoco and the Amazon, the Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice drain British Guiana; the Corentyn forms the boundary between Dutch and British Guiana; the Surinam runs through the centre of Dutch Guiana; while the Maroni flows between Dutch and French Guiana. The whole region drained by these rivers presents a terraci form aspect, rising step by step from the coast to the distant ranges in the

1. In Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel, vol. 5. Central and South America, p. 247. 2. The waters of the Amazon re drinkabe at a distance of more than 180 miles from the coast

3. That is, River of Silver-so called by its dis coverers, under the erroneous impre-s.en that the countries which it waters were rich in tist øre.

interior. The upper courses, therefore, of all these rivers are broken by falls and rapids, which mark the descent from each terrace; their lower courses are navigable by moderate-sized vessels.

The region east of the Tocantins, the last great tributary of the Amazon, is drained by numerous streams which fall directly into the ocean. The Maranhão and the Paranahyba, both navigable streams of considerable magnitude, flow through a low swampy district; the much longer San Francisco, a magnificent stream, equal in length to the Danube, waters the long valley between the coast range and the interior serras. This fine stream is, unfortunately, impeded by numerous falls; those of Paulo Affonso, 168 miles from the sea, mark the limit of its free navigation by sea-going vessels. The narrow plain between the coast range and the sea, both north and south of the San Francisco, is watered by numerous streams, one of which, the Parahyba, is navigable for 60 miles inland.

The southern portion of the Pampas is drained into the sea by two long rivers, the Colorado and the Negro. The sterile, treeless plains of Patagonia, are seamed by few considerable water-courses, the Chubut or Chupat, the Desire, and Santa Cruz being the longest.

The South American Section of the Pacific river-system is remarkable for the paucity of any great streams.

The Andean mountain-wall skirts the Pacific Coast in unbroken continuity from Cape Froward to Panama, at a distance nowhere more than 80 miles inland, and there is, therefore, no room for the development of any considerable streams-two only attaining a length of over 150 miles.

LAKES: South America has few lakes. Lake Titicaca, the largest, lies at an altitude of 12,540 feet above sea-level, on the highest plateau of the Andes.

Lake Titicaca has fresh water, and discharges a considerable river-the Desaguadero--which flows to the south-eastward and terminates in an extensive

marsh.

The other lakes lie adjacent to the coast. Among them are Lake Maracaibo, in the north; with Lake Patos and others on the eastern coast a short distance to the northward of the Rio de la Plata.

CLIMATE: South America has on the whole a warmer climate than North America, but its higher latitudes are colder than the corresponding latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere.

Although two-thirds of the continent are within the Torrid Zone, yet the tropical belt of South America is not so intensely hot as the Equatorial Zone of Africa, because (1) the extent of solid, unbroken land is not so great; (2) the configuration of South America permits the rain-bearing winds from the North and South Atlantic to pass over the greater part of its surface, which is not the case in Africa; (3) the quantity of rain which falls in the tropical parts of South America, with the exception of a comparatively small and extremely arid district on the western coast between the Andes and the Pacific, is generally very great, exceeding in amount the rainfall not only of tropical Africa but of any other region in the world; (4) owing to this, the forests in South America are much more extensive and the vegetation generally far more luxuriant than is the case in Africa, and thus the soil is less exposed to the direct action of the sun's rays; (5) the mountain-land and uplands in tropical South America are higher and of greater extent than those of Africa; (6) South America projects

further south towards the cold Antarctic regions than South Africa; and (7) the western coast of the former continent is washed by the cold Antarctic Drift Current, while the temperature along the African coast is not thus lowered.

"Probably no part of the world,” says Onésime Reclus, "enjoys so great a variety of climate within such brief ranges of space; it has no one which can be predicated of it as a whole, nor can it be divided into climatic bands. The elevation controls the tempera. ture along the borders; it is hot on the coast, moderate on the slopes, and cool to cold on the summits of the plateaux-the great mountains of the coast exhibiting, from base to summit, a specimen of every climate, from fierce tropic heat to the eternal winter of the polar regions; while in the interior, special causes vary it endlessly, and climates of per petual spring, perpetual summer, and perpetual chill, perpetual drought and perpetual damp, may exist all within a few miles of each other. The eastern trade-wind carries wealth to its eastern side, follows the Amazon to its source, and at once cools its equatorial heat and makes its basin one gigantic forest, sweeps over the low-lying isthmus, and diffuses plenty along the western side; but the western projection of the continent deflects it uselessly into the Pacific, and the coast becomes at once a waste of sand and stone and weeds. Western Ecuador is a garden, Western Peru and Northern Chili are deserts, the Desert of Atacama ending on the south a strip of desolation 1,250 miles long, though for another 100 miles or so the country is wretchedly poor. Here the wind shifts agaia to the west, and the scene is changed as magically as before; Southern Chili becomes a fairly watered and wooded agricultural country, while Patagonia, east of the mountains is a semi-arctic desert, and much of the Argentine Republic an arid steppe."

VEGETATION: The combined heat and moisture which distinguish such large portions of South America tend to foster luxuriance of vegetation, and the vast forests of Brazil and Guiana surpass in extent and density of growth those of any other region in the world.

Maize, cassava or manioc, cocoa, tobacco, and the potato are the characteristic food-plants of the South American continent. The various species of cinchona, or Peruvian bark, are native to the tropical regions of the western coast; their valuable medicinal properties were known to the Indians prior to the first visit of Europeans to the New World. The caoutchouc or indiarubber tree' is a native production of the Brazilian forests, which comprehend a vast number of woods of the most valuable description-among them mahogany, Brazil-wood, logwood, and numerous others. The maté-shrub of Paraguay, generally known as yerba maté, is characteristic of that country, and its leaves are used like those of the tea-plant in other parts of the world.

ANIMALS: South America is marvellously rich in birds, most of them brilliantly coloured, and these, with large reptiles and an endless variety of insects, are the chief characteristics of the abund ant animal life on this continent. The mammalia, however, are neither so large nor so formidable as those of Africa or Asia.

The larger animals of the Old World are represented in South America by much smaller and less powerful species. The African lion is represented by the puma, and the Asiatic tiger by the jaguar. These animals, which are the most formidable of the carnivora of South America, also occur in Mexico and Central America. The camel of the Old World is represented by the llama, an animal peculiar to South America. The proper llama, and also the varicus species known as the alpaca, vicuña, and guanaco, all belong to the high region of the Andes, where they range from Chili to Colombia. The liama belongs 1. In is rubber or caoutchouc is a gum which are made for the purpose at a particular period of

exudes trom the bark of a tree, in which incisions the year.

to the order of ruminating quadrupeds, and, like the camel, is used as a beast of burden. The tapir is another of the animals peculiar to South America, and is distinguished by the peculiar form of its snout, which bends inwards; it belongs to the order of pachydermata (thick-skinned) like the elephant of the Old World. The sloth, ant-eater, and armadillo are natives of South America, and represent in its zoology the order of edentata (toothless animals). The quadrumana (monkeys, &c.) are exceedingly numerous in the forests of Brazil, but are of different species from the like animals in the eastern half of the globe. The opossums, which abound in the forests of South America, and one variety of which is common in the northern half of the New World, belong to the order of the marsupial (pouched) quadrupeds-nowhere else found but in the Australian division of the globe.

Among the birds of South America the most characteristic are the condor of the Andes, various kinds of vulture, an immense variety of parrots with the most gorgeous plumage, a peculiar kind of ostrich, the brilliantly coloured toucan, and over 150 species of humming birds-most exquisitely beautiful miniature birds, varying in size from that of a bee to that of a wren.

Both reptile and insect life are favoured by the combined heat and moisture-with its consequent luxuriance of vegetation-of tropical South America. The boa-constrictor, the largest of the serpent tribe, is found in the swampy plains, and the alligator abounds in most of the rivers within the warmer portions of the continent.

MINERALS: South America is extremely rich in minerals, and for a long period its mines of silver and gold were the richest in the world.

The whole region traversed by the Andes abounds in gold and silver, while the goldfields of Brazil and Venezuela are among the richest, though not as yet the most productive in the world. Valuable ores of copper, tin, lead, and iron are widely distributed, but copper only is mined to any extent. Good coal is also mined in the south of Chili.

South America is also rich in precious stones; the diamonds of Brazil are “of the first water," and Colombia is noted for emeralds of surpassing beauty.

INHABITANTS: The total population of South America is estimated at about 42 millions-a number that is extremely small compared with its vast area and its almost unlimited capabilities.

About a third of the whole belong to the white race, and are mostly of Spanish or Portuguese origin. With the exception of Brazil, which was colonized by Portugal, nearly all South America was formerly under Spanish rule.

The native Indians of the New World are more numerous, in the present day, in South America than in North America, and perhaps number not less than twenty millions. The Negroes (chiefly found in Brazil, where they form about one-seventh the population) number about nine millions. Mixed races, "Mestizoes"-principally of European and Indian blood-make up the remaining number. Spanish is the prevailing language all over the cont nent, except in Brazil, where Portuguese is spoken. There are almost as many Indian languages and dialects as there are tribes.

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