rn base;
the three separate mountain-systems of Venezuela, Guiana, and the
Brazils; the mighty forests bordering the great rivers and their
tributaries, to which must be added the wooded heights of the
inter-tropical regions, where tall trees, including several palms,
flourish at an elevation of many thousand feet above the level of the
ocean; and lastly, the wide-extending regions of the Llanos and the
Pampas. These, as might be supposed, present great varieties of animal
life--though scarcely so great as might have been expected, when it is
remembered that they extend from 10 degrees north to 50 degrees south
latitude. Several species indeed are found far to the north of the
equator, and also near the southern end of the continent. But to give
an idea of these different regions, they must be described in detail.

PART THREE, CHAPTER THREE.

VALLEY OF THE AMAZON.

Standing on the eastern spur of the Andes, between 3 degrees and 4
degrees south of the equator, the eye of the traveller may see in
imagination a vast valley, clothed with a dense forest, stretching
towards the far-distant Atlantic. Behind him, on the west, tower the
lofty peaks of the Cordilleras; on his left, in a northerly direction,
appear the mountains and highlands of Venezuela and Guiana; while to the
south rise the serras and table-lands of the Brazils. It is the Valley
of the Amazon, in which more than half of Europe might be contained.
Down the centre flows a mighty stream, the tributaries of which alone
contain a bulk of water greater than all the European rivers put
together.

Upwards of five hundred miles away to the south of the spot where the
traveller stands, is the little lake of Lauricocha, near the
silver-mines of Cerro de Pasco in Peru, just below the limit of
perpetual snow--14,000 feet above the level of the sea. This lake has
the honour of giving birth to the mighty stream: its waters forming the
River Tunguragua, which, roaring and foaming in a series of cataracts
and rapids through rocky valleys, flows northerly till it reaches the
frontier of Ecuador. It then turns suddenly to the east, which
direction it maintains, with a slightly northerly inclination, for two
thousand miles--its volume greatly increased by numerous large streams,
each of which is by itself a mighty river--till, attaining a width which
may vie with that of the Baltic, it rushes with such fierce force into
the Atlantic as to turn aside on either han