Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Descriptive Outline of the Pampas &c. &c.
- The Town of Buenos Aires
- Mode of Travelling
- Town of San Luis
- Journey to the Gold Mines and Lavaderos of La Carolina
- Mendoza
- The Pampas
- The Pampas Indians
- Passage Across the Great Cordillera
- Convent at Santiago
- Journey to the Gold Mine of El Bronce de Petorca
- Gold Mine of Caren
- Journey to the Silver Mine of San Pedro Nolasco
- Departure from Santiago
- Return to Mendoza
- The Pampas
- A Few General Observations Respecting the Working of Mines in South America
- Conclusion
Descriptive Outline of the Pampas &c. &c.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Descriptive Outline of the Pampas &c. &c.
- The Town of Buenos Aires
- Mode of Travelling
- Town of San Luis
- Journey to the Gold Mines and Lavaderos of La Carolina
- Mendoza
- The Pampas
- The Pampas Indians
- Passage Across the Great Cordillera
- Convent at Santiago
- Journey to the Gold Mine of El Bronce de Petorca
- Gold Mine of Caren
- Journey to the Silver Mine of San Pedro Nolasco
- Departure from Santiago
- Return to Mendoza
- The Pampas
- A Few General Observations Respecting the Working of Mines in South America
- Conclusion
Summary
The mountains of the Andes run about North and South through the whole of South America, and they are consequently nearly parallel to the two shores of the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, dividing the country between them into two unequal parts, each bounded by an Ocean and by the Cordillera.
It would at first be expected that these twin countries, separated only by a range of mountains, should have a great resemblance to each other; but variety is the attribute of Omnipotence, and nature has granted to these two countries a difference of climate and geological construction which is very remarkable.
From the tops of the Andes she supplies both of them with water; by the gradual melting of the snow they are both irrigated exactly in proportion to their wants; and vegetation, instead of being exhausted by the burning sun of summer, is thus nourished and supported by the very heat which threatened to destroy it.
The water, however, which flows through Chili towards the Pacific, is confined in its whole course, and forces its way through a country as mountainous as the highlands of Scotland or Switzerland.
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- Information
- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1826