Location and Extent.- In what direction is South America from North America? In what zones is it? Measure by the scale of miles its greatest length; its greatest width. What isthmus connects North and South America?

Coast Features. Is the coast of South America more or less regular than the coast of North America? What is the most northerly point? What cape is at the eastern angle? at the southern extremity? at the western? What island is off the northern coast? What group is off the southeastern coast? What group is some distance off the west coast just south of the equator? What islands lie off the southwest coast?

What island lies off the south coast? What strait is between the mainland and Tierra del Fuego?

Surface. The great highland region of South America is formed by what mountains? Trace the continental divide through North and South America (map p. 12). Name the mountains which form it. What plateau is in the northern part of South America? in the eastern part? in the western?

Drainage. What great river drains most of the northern part of the grand division? In which direction does its basin slope? Name two branches of the Amazon on the north; four on the south. Into what Into what does the Amazon flow? What is the latitude of the mouth of the Amazon? What river basin is north of the Amazon? Trace the divide between the Amazon and the Orinoco. What great river drains the southeastern part of South America? What two rivers unite to form the Plata? In what direction does this great river basin slope? Where does the Uruguay rise? the Parana? Name a branch of the Parana. Name two rivers south of the Plata. What river drains the extreme eastern part of South America? What river in the northwest flows to the Caribbean Sea?

DESCRIPTION

Location and Extent. - South America, extending 12° north and 56° south of the equator, is situated mainly in the southern hemisphere. It lies southeast of North America, in the Torrid and South Temperate zones. Its length is about 5000 miles, and its width at the widest point, nearly 3000. Although three fourths the size of North America, it has only one third as many people.

Coast Line. In general the coast is very regular, and there are comparatively few good harbors. The southwestern coast, however, is bordered by many mountainous islands. As on the northwestern coast of North America, the upheaval has not been great enough to form the line of mountains in the islands into a continuous chain, - parts of the chain are yet submerged, and arms of the Pacific extend behind the islands and into the fiord valleys of the mountain chain within. Near the southern end, the Strait of Magellan extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and separates Tierra del Fuego from the mainland.

Surface. South America presents some resemblance to North America in the general distribution of its surface features. The western part contains the chief highlands, while the east has a much lower and less continuous highland region. Between the western and eastern highlands, almost from one end of South America. to the other, extends the great central lowland, which is separated by low divides into three slopes: a northern, an eastern, and a southern.

The Andes Mountains, though much loftier and more continuous than the Rocky Mountains, do not form so broad a highland. They lie comparatively close to the Pacific coast, and border it like a great wall from the Caribbean Sea to Cape Horn.

In the north they are divided into three chains, forming the valleys of the Magdalena and of the streams flowing into Lake Maracaibo. Farther south, near the equator, these chains converge to form the high Ecuador plateau, on which are situated many noted volcanoes. Here Chimborazo and Cotopaxi attain heights of nearly four miles. Diverging again south of the equator, two main chains border and inclose the comparatively narrow plateau of Bolivia, which maintains an elevation of about two and a half miles. This plateau is rugged in the north, but resembles the Great Basin of North America in the south, having ancient lake terraces and salt and alkaline lakes.

South of the Bolivian plateau the Andes attain their greatest height in Mount Aconcagua, about four and a half miles high, and extend mainly in one great chain bordered by smaller ones until they terminate in the great promontory of Cape Horn. The continental divide lies east of the southern Andes for a considerable distance. This is due to the heavy rainfall on the Pacific slope, which causes the rivers by erosion to extend their sources and valleys eastward.

The Andes contain many peaks and volcanoes, of which Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, Sorata, and Illimani are among the most noted. Earthquakes are common, and some regions are almost constantly shaken.

The western slopes of the Andes are abrupt and in many places terraced with shell deposits and old coral reefs. The eastern slopes are more gentle.

The Brazilian Plateau. - The highland system in the east is known as the plateau of Brazil. It is about half a mile high, and is traversed from northeast to southwest by a number of mountain ranges which reach heights of over a mile. The Plateau of Guiana in the north trends nearly east and west, and is about the same height as the Brazilian plateau. Along its southern edge are higher, table-like mountains with level rock layers.

The lowlands of South America include the great central lowland, which surrounds the plateau of Guiana and extends southward to Tierra del Fuego; and narrow coast plains west of the Andes and east of the Brazilian highland. The central lowland is remarkably level and continuous. All its divides are low.

Drainage.

The long eastern slope from the Andes to the Atlantic is drained chiefly by three great river sys

tems: the Orinoco, the Amazon, and the Plata.

The Orinoco drains the northern part of the great plain, and flows into the Atlantic through many mouths. It forms a delta larger than the state of New Jersey. This river is navigable for more than 1000 miles.

The Amazon, though not so long as the Mississippi-Missouri, is the greatest river of the world in volume of water. Its basin includes more than one third of the area of South America,

and its volume of water is so great that its current of fresh water is felt far out in the ocean. The mouth is more than a hundred miles wide, and 2000 miles from its mouth it is still a mile in width. The Indian name of the river means boat "destroyer," because of the great bores which sometimes sweep up the channel like large rolling breakers 15 to 25 feet in height. The Amazon is navigable for large ocean steamers for 1000 miles, and for large river steamers for 2000 miles.

The Plata and its tributaries, the Parana and Uruguay, drain a basin as large as that of the Mississippi. These streams with their tributaries furnish many miles of water ways, but carry so much sediment that temporary islands are formed or removed in the lower Parana during every flood.

Part of the Brazilian plateau is drained by the São Francisco; and the chief longitudinal valley of the northern Andes, by the Magdalena.

LAKE TITICACA.

The Pacific slope is drained by short streams, many of which in Peru and northern Chile dry up before reaching the ocean.

South America has few important lakes, the chief ones being Maracaibo, in the north, and Titicaca, on the Bolivian plateau, more than two miles. above the sea. Lake Titicaca has an outlet which flows to the smaller Lake Aullagas, which has no outlet, and whose waters are consequently salt. Climate. The temperature of any place in South America varies comparatively little. The lowlands in

the north are always hot; in the south central part the summers are hot and the winters mild; in the southern part the weather is always temperate, except in the extreme south, where it is stormy and chilly, though never always temperate, or in the highest parts always cold. very cold. The northern and central highlands are The southern highlands are always cold, and glaciers extend down into the sea.

In the Torrid Zone the winds are the northeast and southeast trades. As the winds blow against the Andes and the eastern highlands they ascend, and consequent cooling causes abundant rainfall on the eastern slopes. They descend on the western slopes of the Andes as dry winds, and make much of the west coast arid.

The equatorial zone of daily rains sweeps back and forth over the equator with the sun, causing abundant rainfall in the Amazon and Orinoco valleys.

The southern part of South America is affected by the prevailing westerlies; hence the west slopes of the southern Andes are rainy and the east arid.

Vegetation. East of the Andes, in the hot lowland basin of the Amazon, the rainfall is heavy and continuous enough to favor the growth of dense tropical forests called here the Silvas.

In most places the silvas are almost impenetrable; the trees growing close together are covered with creeping plants, and both with parasitic growths. Many strange and wonderful flowering plants are found here, but very many of the plants are flowerless, and palms and treeferns abound. India rubber and gum trees, cabinet and dye woods, sarsaparilla, ipecac, and cinchona, Brazil nuts and cocoanuts, vanilla, and cacao are some of the plants native to this region.

The rainy region of the northwest is very similar in its plant life.

The southwest Pacific coast, in the temperate region, is also always humid, and here are great forests of cedars, oaks, pines, laurels, and beeches, of peculiar but valuable kinds.

In the broad lowlands of the Orinoco basin the rainfall is not so continuous. The summer and fall are wet, but the rest of the year very dry. Hence these lowlands, called the Llanos, can not support a forest growth; but are covered with grasses and low herbage in the wet season, and are reduced almost to a desert in the

dry season. The Guiana plateau, however, has more continuous rainfall, and is covered with dense tropical forests.

The southern lowlands east of the Andes are dry and nearly desert near the mountains, but farther east have sufficient rain to support a luxuriant growth of rich grasses. These grassy lowlands are called the Pampas.

The Andes Mountains have many varieties of plants because they have every variety of climate, both in temperature and rainfall. The potato, corn, coca, tomato, and cinchona are natives of the Andes.

the peccary, and humming birds.

Many of the animals of the silvas are adapted to living in trees.

The fierce jaguar, the piglike tapir, the great anaconda, and the boa constrictor are the only large animals of the silvas, except the whalelike manatee and the great alligators of the rivers.

The best-known tree-inhabiting animals are the sloth, and many kinds of tailed monkeys; some of the other small animals are the peccary, the ant-eaters, many kinds of snakes, and great numbers of insects. Birds of the most brilliant plumage abound, the most beautiful of which are the hundreds of kinds of humming birds and many species of parrots and toucans.

The grassy plains are characterized by many burrowing animals, as the armadillos; and the pampas have swift-running animals, as the guanaco, deer, and the ostrichlike rhea. Deer are also found on the llanos. But the most abundant animals are the horses, sheep, and cattle introduced from the Old World.

The Andes region has animals adapted to the colder climate and the relief of the land.

Next to Australia, South America has more peculiar kinds of animals than any other life region, and no other is so rich in animal life. Some of the animals characteristic of this region are many kinds of opossums, the sloth, curious ant-eaters,

Here are found several species of camellike animals, adapted to climbing the precipitous mountain sides. They are the llama, alpaca, guanaco, and vicuna. The llama and alpaca have been domesticated, and are valuable for their wool. The chinchilla, a fur-bearing

People. The native people of South America are Indians, and at the time of the discovery of America there were more Indians in South America than in North America. Those of the lowlands, and especially of the forest regions, were savages, while the Indians of the central Andes had progressed nearly to civilization. The Incas, living near Lake Titicaca, had made the most progress. They irrigated and fertilized the land, built great aqueducts for conveying the water, constructed excellent roads that are still used, built great stone

buildings, made bronze, and used other metals, such as gold and silver, for beautiful ornaments, made fine pottery, and organized a good government. They cultivated corn, potatoes, and cotton; domesticated the llama and alpaca, and used them as beasts of burden and wove their wool into cloth.

ties of the leaves of the maté, or "Paraguay tea," are gathered and used in making a beverage. In the order of their importance, the chief industries of South America are agriculture, herding, and mining.

Governments. - All of the South American states were once possessions of European countries. All are now independent republics, except the Guianas, which form colonies of Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands. Most of the people of South America are Roman Catholics. Other religions are tolerated in all countries except Peru and Ecuador.

zil. Here the Portuguese established agriculture and introduced slaves to till the soil. Hence in Brazil the people are Portuguese, negroes, Indians, and mixed races. Italians, Germans, and English have recently entered some of the South American countries, especially Argentina and Chile.

The population of South America is about 34,000,000. The average population is quite sparse, there being only five people to the mile. square

Resources.

The mineral resources of South America are very great. Gold, silver, and copper are found in the Andes highland, and in Brazil. Coal and iron are widely distributed. Nitrate of soda, from the dry west coast, is one of the most important minerals. Fine diamonds. formerly were found in Brazil, and emeralds in the northern Andes.

The pasture lands of the llanos and the pampas feed millions of horses, cattle, and sheep, and nearly all parts are adapted to successful agriculture. There are great wheat fields in the pampas, and coffee, sugar, rice, and cotton plantations near the southeastern and northern

Religion.

Text Questions. Compare South America with North America in area and population. Explain the irregularity and the many islands of the southwestern coast. What part of the North American coast does it resemble? Show how the surface features of North and South America are somewhat alike. Describe the Andes. Name and locate the great volcanoes. Describe the Brazilian plateau; the plateau of Guiana; the lowlands. Name the three great drainage basins of South America, and describe the principal rivers of each. Describe the drainage of the Pacific slope.

What is the characteristic feature of the South American climate? What is the cause of the abundant rainfall of the eastern slopes of the

tropical Andes? Why are the western slopes very dry? Explain the abundant rainfall of the Orinoco and Amazon valleys. Describe the vegetation of the silvas; the Pacific coast; the Andes. Describe the animal life of the silvas; the grassy plains; the Andes.

Who were the original inhabitants of South America? Give a brief account of the Incas; of the conquest by the Spaniards. What part of the continent was conquered by the Portuguese? What are the chief mineral resources of the country? Where are the minerals found? put? Give an account of the domestic commerce; the foreign comWhat are the chief crops? To what use are the pampas and llanos merce. Do the exports consist of raw materials or manufactured products? the imports? Give a reason for this. What is the government of nearly all the South American countries? What is the exception? What is the prevailing religion?