GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

Preface to the First Edition—p. vii. to p. ix.

Preface to the Second and Third Editions—p. xi. to p. xv.

Note by the Translator—p. xvii.

Steppes and Deserts—p. 1 to p. 26.

Coast chain and mountain valleys of Caraccas. Lake of Tacarigua. Contrast in respect to the luxuriance of vegetation between those districts and the treeless plains. The steppe regarded as the bottom of a Mediterranean Sea; broken strata a little higher than the rest of the plain called “banks.” General phenomena of extensive plains; the Heaths of Europe, the Pampas and Llanos of South America, the African Deserts, and the Steppes of Northern Asia. Different characters of the vegetable covering of the surface. Animal life. Pastoral nations, and their invasive migrations 1–6

Description of the South American plains and prairies—their extent and climate; the latter dependent on the outline of the coasts, and on the hypsometric conformation of the New Continent. Comparison with the plains and deserts of Africa 7–13

Original absence of pastoral life in America. Food furnished by the Mauritia palm; the Guaranis’ huts raised on trees 13–17

Since the discovery of America the Llanos have become more habitable. Extraordinary increase in the number of wild cattle, horses, asses, and mules. Description of the season of extreme dryness, and of the rainy season. Appearance of the surface of the ground and of the sky. Life of the animals—their sufferings, their conflicts; power of adaptation with which certain animals and plants are endowed. Jaguars, crocodiles, and electric fishes. Unequal conflict between Gymnoti and horses 17–23

Retrospective glance at the countries surrounding the Steppes and Deserts. Forest wildernesses of the Orinoco and the Amazons. Indian tribes separated by the wonderful diversity of their languages and differences of their habits; their hardships, and frequent variance between the different tribes. Figures graven on the rocks show that these solitudes were once the seat of a degree of civilisation which has now disappeared 23–26

Scientific Elucidations and Additions—p. 27 to p. 204.

The island-studded lake of Tacarigua; its relations to the neighbouring mountain chains. Geological description. Progress of cultivation and of European civilisation. Varieties of the sugar-cane. Cacao plantations. Great fertility of soil associated within the tropics with insalubrity of atmosphere 27–33

“Banks” or broken strata. General horizontality of the surface. Subsidences of the surface 33–35

Resemblance of the distant steppe to the ocean. Naked stony crust. Tabular masses of syenite; whether prejudicial to health 36–37

General views respecting the mountain systems of North and South America, embracing the most recent information. Chains running in a south-west and north-east direction in Brazil and in the Atlantic portion of the United States of North America. The low province of Chiquitos; small swellings of the ground constitute the division between the waters of the Guaporé and Aguapehi in 15° and 17° S. lat., and between the river basins of the Orinoco and the Rio Negro in 2° and 3° N. lat. 37–39

Continuation of the chain of the Andes north of the isthmus of Panama (through the Aztec country, where Popocatepetl, 16626 French, or 17720 English feet high, has very recently been again ascended by Captain Stone) in the Sierra de las Grullas and the Rocky Mountains. Excellent scientific investigations of Captain Frémont. The longest barometric levelling ever made, showing a profile or vertical section of the earth’s surface through a space of 28° of longitude. Culminating point of the route from the coast of the Atlantic to the Pacific. “South Pass,” south of the Wind River Mountains. Swelling of the ground in the Great Basin. Long contested existence of the Timpanogos Lake. Coast Chain, Maritime Alps, or Sierra Nevada of California. Volcanic eruptions. Falls of the Columbia 39–50

General considerations on the contrasts shown by the spaces included between the central chain (the Rocky Mountains) and the diverging chains on the east and west (the Alleghanies and the Sierra Nevada of California); hypsometric characters of the low eastern space, which is only from 400 to 600 French, or 426 to 639 English feet above the level of the sea, and of the arid uninhabited plain 5000 or 6000 (5330 to 6400 English) feet above the same level, called the Great Basin. Sources of the Mississipi in the Lake of Istaca according to Nicollet’s highly meritorious researches. Buffalo country; Gomara’s assertion of buffaloes having been formerly tamed in the northern part of Mexico 50–55

Retrospective view of the chain of the Andes from the Rocks of Diego Ramirez to Behring’s Strait. Long circulated errors respecting the heights of mountains in the eastern chain of the Andes of Bolivia, especially the Sorata and the Illimani. Four summits of the western chain of Bolivia, which, according to Pentland’s latest determinations, are higher than the Chimborazo, but are not equal in height to the still active volcano of Acongagua measured by Fitz-Roy 55–58

The African mountains of Harudsch-el-Abiad. Oases 58–60

West winds on the coast of the Sahara. Accumulation of sea-weed; position of the great bank of Fucus from the time of Scylax of Caryanda to that of Columbus, and to the present day 60–67

Tibbos and Tuaricks. The camel and its distribution 67–71

Mountain systems of the interior of Asia between Northern Siberia and India. Erroneous belief in the existence of a single great elevated plain called “Plateau de la Tartarie” 71–75

Chinese literature a rich source of orographic knowledge. Series of elevations of different highlands. Desert of Gobi. Probable mean height of Thibet 75–85

Review of the mountain systems of the interior of Asia. Chains running in the direction of the meridian; the Ural, which separates the low part of Europe from the low part of Asia, or divides into two portions the Scythian Europe of Pherecydes of Syros and of Herodotus; Bolor; Khingan and the Chinese chains, which, near the great bend in the direction of the Thibetian and Assamo-Burmese river Dzangbo-tschu, run north and south. The elevations which, between 66° and 77° E. long. from Greenwich, follow the direction of meridians from Cape Comorin to the Icy Sea, alternate like veins or dikes in which there are faults or displacements; thus the Ghauts, the Soliman Chain, the Paralasa, the Bolor, and the Ural, succeed each other from south to north: the Bolor gave occasion among the ancients to the idea of the Imaus, which Agathodæmon supposed to be prolonged to the north into the low basin of the lower Irtysch. Parallel chains running east and west; the Altai; Thian-schan, with its active volcanoes at a distance of 1528 geographical miles from the Icy Sea at the mouth of the Obi, and of 1512 geographical miles from the Indian Sea at the mouth of the Ganges; the Kuen-lün, recognised by Eratosthenes, Marinus of Tyre, Ptolemy, and Cosmas Indicopleustes, as the longest axis of elevation in the Old World, runs between 35½° and 36° of latitude in the direction of the diaphragm of Dicearchus. Himalaya. The Kuen-lün, considered as an axis of elevation, may be traced from the wall of China near Lung-tscheu through the somewhat more northerly chains of Nan-schan and Kilian-schan, through the mountain knot near the Lake called the “Starry Sea,” through the Hindu-Coosh (the Parapanisus and Indian Caucasus of the ancients), and through the chain of Demawend and the Persian Elbourz, to Taurus in Lycia. Near the intersection of the Kuen-lün and the Bolor the correspondence of the direction of the axes of elevation (east and west in the Kuen-lün and the Hindu-Coosh, whereas that of the Himalaya is south-east and north-west) shows that the Hindu-Coosh is a continuation of the Kuen-lün, and not of the Himalaya. The point where the direction of the Himalaya changes to south-east and north-west from having been east and west, is about the 79th degree of east longitude from Paris (81° 22′ Greenwich). Next to the Dhawalagiri, it is not, as has been hitherto supposed, the Jawahir which is the highest summit of the Himalaya; that rank belonging, according to the most recent intelligence received from Dr. Joseph Hooker, to a mountain situated between Boutan and Nepaul in the meridian of Sikkim, the Kinchinjinga: the western summit of this mountain, which has been measured by Colonel Waugh, director of the trigonometrical survey of India, is 28178 feet, and its eastern summit 27826 feet high, according to the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Nov. 1848:—The mountain which is now supposed to be higher than the Dhawalagiri is figured on the frontispiece of the magnificent work of Joseph Hooker entitled “The Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya, 1849.”—Determination of the lower limits of the snow-line on the northern and southern declivities of the Himalaya; its height being on an average 3400 to 4600 French, or 3620 to 4900 English feet higher on the northern face. New data on the subject from Hodgson. Without this remarkable distribution of temperature in the upper strata of the atmosphere, the mountain plains of Western Thibet would be uninhabitable to the millions of human beings who now dwell there 85–101

The Hiong-nu, regarded by Deguignes and Johannes Müller as a tribe of Huns, appear rather to have been one of the widely scattered tribes of the Turks of the Altai and Tang-nu mountains. The Huns, whose name was known to Dionysius Perigetes, and who are noticed by Ptolemy as Chuns (whence the later appellation of Chunigard given to a country!), are a Finnish race of the Ural mountains 101–102

Figures of the sun and of animals, and other signs carved on rocks in the Sierra Parime, as well as in North America, have often been supposed to be writing 102–104

Description of the cold mountain elevations between 11000 and 13000 (or 11720 and 13850 English) feet, which are distinguished by the appellation of Paramos; character of their vegetation 104–106

Notices of the two groups of mountains (Pacaraima Mountains, and the Sierra de Chiquitos) which separate the three plains of the Lower Orinoco, the Amazons, and the Rio de la Plata 106–107

On the dogs of South America; both the aboriginal race and the descendants of European dogs which have become wild. Sufferings of cats when taken to elevations exceeding 13000 (13850 Eng.) feet 107–112

The low tract of the Sahara, and its relations to the Atlas Mountains, according to the latest information given by Daumas, Carette, and Renou. The barometric measurements of Fournel make it appear very probable that part of the North African desert is lower than the level of the sea. Oasis of Biscara; abundance of fossil salt in zones or bands running from south-west to north-east. Causes of the nocturnal cold in the desert according to Melloni 112–118

Notices of the River Wady Dra (⅙th longer than the Rhine, and dry a large portion of the year), and of the country of Sheikh Beirouk, a chief independent of the Emperor of Morocco, from manuscript communications of the Naval Captain Count Bouet-Villaumez. The mountains north of Cape Noun (a name used by Edresi, in which, since the 15th century, an allusion to the negative particle has been erroneously sought) attain 8600 (9166 English) feet of elevation 118–120

The vegetation of the tropical American Llanos consisting of grasses, compared with the vegetation of the North Asiatic Steppes consisting of herbaceous plants. In the last-named Steppes, and especially the more fertile among them, a pleasing effect is produced in spring by small snow-white and red-flowering Rosaceæ, Amygdaleæ, species of Astragalus, Crown Imperials, Cypripedias, and Tulips. Contrast with the desolate salt Steppes full of Chenopodiaceæ, species of Salsola and Atriplex. Considerations on the relative numbers of the prevailing families of plants. The plains adjoining the Icy Sea, north of the limit determined by Admiral Wrangel as that of the growth of Coniferæ and Amentaceæ, are the domain of cryptogamous plants. Aspect and physiognomy of the Tundras, where the soil, which is perpetually frozen, is covered either with a thick coating of Sphagnum and other mosses, or with the snow-white Cenomyce and Stereocaulon paschale 120–123

Principal causes of the very different distribution of temperature in the European and American Continents. Direction and curvature of the isothermal lines, or lines of equal temperature, for the entire year, for the winter, and for the summer 123–136

Are there any grounds for believing that America emerged later than the Old Continent from the chaotic watery covering? 136–139

Thermic comparison of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres in high latitudes 139–143

Apparent connection of the African sea of sand with those of Persia, Kerman, Beloochistan, and the interior of Asia. On the western part of Mount Atlas, and the connection of purely mythical ideas with geographical traditions. Indistinct allusions to igneous eruptions. Triton Lake. Crater-like forms of a locality south of Hanno’s “Bay of the Gorilla Apes.” Singular description of the “hollow Atlas” from the Dialexes of Marinus Tyrius 143–149

Notices respecting the Mountains of the Moon (Djebel al-Komr) in the interior of Africa by Reinaud, Beke, and Ayrton. Werne’s instructive notice of the second expedition undertaken by the orders of Mehemet Ali. The Abyssinian mountains, which rise, according to Rüppell, almost to the height of Mont Blanc. The most ancient notice of snow between the tropics contained in the Inscription of Adulis, which is somewhat more modern than Juba. High mountains which, between 6° and 4° of north latitude, and still more to the south, approach the Bahr el-Abiad. A considerable swelling of the ground divides the White Nile from the basin of the Goschop. Line of separation between the waters which flow to the Mediterranean and those which flow to the Indian Ocean according to Carl Zimmermann’s map. Lupata Chain according to the instructive researches of Wilhelm Peters 149–158

Oceanic currents. In the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean the waters are impelled in a true revolving current. That the first impulse which causes the Gulf Stream is to be sought at the southern extremity of Africa, was already known to Sir Humphry Gilbert in 1560. Influence of the Gulf Stream on the climate of Scandinavia. How it contributed to the discovery of America. Instances of Esquimaux who, aided by the returning eastward flowing portion of the warm Gulf Stream, and by north-west winds, arrived on the coasts of Europe. Such a case related by Cornelius Nepos and Pomponius Mela (of Indians given by a king of the Boii to Quintus Metellus Celer, Proconsul of Gaul); others in the time of the Othos and of Frederic Barbarossa, of Columbus and of Cardinal Bembo. Again, in the years 1682 and 1684 natives of Greenland appeared in the Orkneys 159–165

Operation of lichens and other Cryptogamia in the cold and temperate zones in preparing the way for the more rapid establishment of larger phænogamous plants. Within the tropics lichens are often replaced in this respect by succulent plants. Milk-yielding animals of the New Continent; the Lama, the Alpaca, the Guanaco 165–169

Cultivation of farinaceous grasses 169–173

On the earliest population of America 173–174

The coast nation of the Guaranis (Warraus), and the Mauritia palm of the coasts, according to the accounts given by Bembo in the Historiæ Venetæ, and those of Raleigh, Hillhouse, and Robert and Richard Schomburgk 174–182

Phenomena which long-continued drought produces in the Steppe; sand-spouts, hot winds (Mirage); awakening of crocodiles and tortoises from long summer sleep 182–190

Otomacs. General considerations on the practice of earth-eating among particular nations or tribes. Clays and earths containing Infusoria 190–196

Figures graven on rocks throughout a zone running from east to west, and extending from the Rupunuri, Essequibo, and the Pacaraima Mountains, to Caycara and the wildernesses of the Cassiquiare. Earliest notice (April 1749) of these traces of former civilization in the manuscript account of the travels of the surgeon Nicolas Hortsmann of Hildesheim, found among D’Anville’s papers 196–203

The vegetable poison Curare or Ourari 203–204

Cataracts of the Orinoco—p. 207 to p. 231.

The Orinoco; general view of its course. Ideas excited in Columbus on seeing its embouchure. Its unknown sources are east of the Mountain of Duida and the groves of Bertholletia. Causes of the principal bends of the river 207–219

The falls or rapids; Raudal of Maypures enclosed by four streams. Former state of the district. Island-like form of the rocks Keri and Oco. Grandeur of the view obtained on descending the hill of Manimi, where a foaming river-surface of four miles in extent presents itself at once to the eye. Iron-black masses of rock rise like castles from the bed of the river; the summits of the lofty palm trees pierce through the cloud of spray and vapour 219–226

Raudal of Atures; numerous islands; rocky dikes connecting one island with another, and the resort of pugnacious golden Pipras. Parts of the bed of the river at the cataracts are dry, from the waters having found a passage by subterranean channels. We visited the rocks at the closing in of night and during storm and heavy rain. Unsuspected proximity of crocodiles 226–227

Celebrated cave of Ataruipe, the sepulchral vault of an extinct nation 227–231

Scientific Elucidations and Additions—p. 233 to p. 255.

The river-cow (Trichecus manati) lives in the sea at the place where, in the Gulf of Xagua, on the south coast of the Island of Cuba, springs of fresh water break forth 233–234

Geographical discussion on the sources of the Orinoco 236–241

The Bertholletia, a Lecythidea, a remarkable example of highly developed organization. Stem of an Arundinarea sixteen to seventeen feet long from knot to knot 241–243

On the myth or fable of the Lake of Parime 243–254

The Nocturnal Life of Animals in the Primeval Forest—p. 259 to p. 272.

Difference between languages in respect to their richness in well-defined expressions for characterising natural phenomena, such as the state of vegetation, the forms of plants, the outlines and grouping of clouds, the appearance of the surface of the ground, and the forms of rocks and mountains. Loss which languages suffer by the disuse of such words, or by their signification becoming impaired. The misinterpretation of a Spanish word, “Monte,” has caused the undue extension or introduction of mountains in maps. Primeval Forest; frequent abuse of the term. Absence of the uniformity which is produced by the association of the same kinds of trees, characteristic of tropical forests. Causes of the impenetrability of forests between the tropics; the twining plants, Lianes, often form only a small portion of the Underwood 259–266

Appearance of the Rio Apure in the lower part of its course. Margin of the forest fenced like a garden by a low hedge of Sauso (Hermesia). The wild animals of the forest lead their young to the river through small openings in this hedge. Flocks of large water-hogs or Cavies (Capybara). Fresh-water dolphins 266–269

Wild cries of animals resound throughout the forest. Cause of the nocturnal uproar 269–271

Contrast with the stillness which reigns during the noon-tide hours on days of more than usual heat in the torrid zone. Description of the narrows of the Orinoco at Baraguan. Humming and fluttering of insects. Life stirs audibly in every bush, in the clefts of the bark of trees, and in the earth undermined and furrowed by Hymenopterous insects 271–272

Scientific Elucidations and Additions—p. 273 to p. 275.

Characteristic terms in Arabic and Persian descriptive of the surface of the ground (Steppes, grassy plains, deserts, &c.) Richness of the old Castilian idiom in words expressive of the form of mountains. Fresh-water skates and dolphins. In the great rivers of both continents some organic sea-forms are repeated. American nocturnal monkeys, the three-striped Douroucouli of the Cassiquiare. 273–275

Hypsometric Addenda—p. 277 to p. 285.

Pentland’s measurements in the eastern mountain chain of Bolivia. Height of the volcano of Aconcagua according to Fitzroy and Darwin. Western mountain chain of Bolivia 277–279

Mountain systems of North America. Rocky Mountains and the Snowy Chain (Sierra Nevada) of California. Laguna de Timpanogos 279–283

Hypsometrical profile of the Highland of Mexico from the city of Mexico to Santa Fé 283–285

END OF VOL. I.

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