present such a continuous and lofty chain of mountains, unbroken for
eight thousand miles, save where it is rent asunder by the Magellanic
Straits, and proudly tossing up a thousand pinnacles into the region of
eternal snow. Nowhere in the Old World do we see a single well-defined
mountain chain, only a broad belt of mountainous country traversing the
heart of the continent.

[Footnote 51: The name Andes is often derived from _anta_, an old
Peruvian word signifying metal. But Humboldt says: "There are no means
of interpreting it by connecting it with any signification or idea; if
such connection exist, it is buried in the obscurity of the past."
According to Col. Tod, the northern Hindoos apply the name Andes to the
Himalayan Mountains.]

The moment the Andes arose, the great continental valley of the Amazon
was sketched out and moulded in its lap. The tidal waves of the Atlantic
were dashing against the Cordilleras, and a legion of rivulets were
busily plowing up the sides into deep ravines; the sediment produced by
this incessant wear and tear was carried eastward, and spread out
stratum by stratum, till the shallow sea between the Andes and the
islands of Guiana and Brazil was filled up with sand and clay. Huge
glaciers (thinks Agassiz), afterward descending, moved over the inclined
plane, and ground the loose rock to powder.[52] Eddies and currents,
throwing up sand-banks as they do now, gradually defined the limits of
the tributary streams, and directed them into one main trunk, which
worked for itself a wide, deep bed, capable of containing its
accumulated flood. Then and thus was created the Amazon.

[Footnote 52: On this point see Chapter XVII.]

In South America Nature has framed her works on a gigantic scale. Where
else combined do we see such a series of towering mountains, such a
volume of river-water, and such wide-spreading plains? We have no proper
conception of Andine grandeur till we learn that the top of the tallest
mountain in North America is nearly a mile beneath the untrodden dome of
Chimborazo; nor any just view of the vast dimensions of the Amazonian
Valley till we find that all the United States could be packed in it
without touching its boundaries; nor any adequate idea of the Amazon
itself till we ascertain that it drains a million square miles more than
the Mississippi.

South America is a triangular continent, with its axis, the Andes, not
central, as in Europe, but lying on its extrem