Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Travellers Partly Cross And Partly Go Along The
Side Of The Sierra De Cordova (Between 33 And 31 Degrees Of
Latitude)
in their way from Buenos Ayres to Mendoza; it may be said to be the
most southern promontory which
Advances, in the Pampas, towards the
meridian of 65 degrees; it gives birth to the great river known by the
name of Desaguadero de Mendoza and extends from San Juan de la
Frontera and San Juan de la Punta to the town of Cordova. The second
spur, called the Sierra de Salta and the Jujui, of which the greatest
breadth is 25 degrees of latitude, widens from the valley of Catamarca
and San Miguel del Tucuman, in the direction of the Rio Vermejo
(longitude 64 degrees). Finally, the third and most majestic spur, the
Sierra Nevada de Cochabamba and Santa Cruz (from 22 to 17 1/2 degrees
of latitude), is linked with the knot of the mountains of Porco. It
forms the points of partition (divortia aquarum, between the basin of
the Amazon and that of the Rio de la Plata. The Cachimayo and the
Pilcomayo, which rise between Potosi, Talavera de la Puna, and La
Plata or Chuquisaca, run in the direction of south-east, while the
Parapiti and the Guapey (Guapaiz, or Rio de Mizque) pour their waters
into the Mamori, to north-east. The ridge of partition being near
Chayanta, south of Mizque, Tomina and Pomabamba, nearly on the
southern declivity of the Sierra de Cochabamba in latitude 19 and 20
degrees, the Rio Guapey flows round the whole group, before it reaches
the plains of the Amazon, as in Europe the Poprad, a tributary of the
Vistula, makes a circuit in its course from the southern part of the
Carpathians to the plains of Poland.
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