File:The earth and its inhabitants (1882) (14774970224).jpg

Identifier: earthitsinhabita18recl (find matches)
Title: The earth and its inhabitants ..
Year: 1882 (1880s)
Authors: Reclus, Elisée, 1830-1905 Ravenstein, Ernest George, 1834-1913 Keane, Augustus Henry, 1833-1912
Subjects: Geography
Publisher: New York : D. Appleton and Company
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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trast is certainly very marked between the two sectionsof the continent, the Andean region and that of the Guianas and Brazil. In the former the planetary life manifests itself with the greater energy, and this sectionis also the younger of the two. Formed in more recent geological epochs, it hasnot yet completed its upward movement. The several ranges, however, appear tohave been upheaved in an extremely irregular manner, and some of the loftiestcrests are amongst those whose origin dates from comparatively modern ages. The Eastern Orograihic System. Taken as a whole, the Andine crests rose above the ocean during geologicalperiods later than those that witnessed the birth of the eastern uplands in the THE BRAZIL AND GUIANA UPLANDS. 23 Guianas and Brazil. These consist chiefly of crystalline and archaic rocks, sand-stones, and schists, which are overlain to a vast extent by mesozoic and, especially, fig. 7.—Andes Scenkey. View taken at the Chaupichaca Bridge, Lima—La Oroya Railway
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cretaceous formations. In this respect the same contrast has been observed in the southern as in the northern continent. In the epoch of their appearance, as well 24 SOUTH AMERICA—THE ANDES REGIONS. as in the altitude, general trend, and relative position, the Brazilian serras resemble the Alleghanies, while the Andes correspond to the Rocky Mountains, of whichthey were formerly regarded as the southern continuation. Carved into a number of fragments by tlie great streams descending fromthe eastern slope of the Andes, the uplands facing the Atlantic present no contin-uity in the direction from north to south ; in some districts they are even distri-buted without any apparent order. Thus the hilly Parima region, whore so manygold-hunfers hoped at one time to find the city of El Dorado with all its fabuloustreasures, develops its main axis in the direction fiom the north-west to thesouth-east. The other Guiana ranges also follow, for the most p

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