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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The Hydraulic System Of The Orinoco
Displays The Singular Phenomenon Of A Bifurcation Where The Limit Of
Two Basins (Those Of The Orinoco And The Rio Negro) Crosses The Bed Of
The Principal Recipient.
In that part of the basin of the Orinoco
which runs in the direction of from south to north, as well as in that
running from west to east, the maxima of depression are found at the
foot of the Sierra Parime, we may even say, on its outline.
4. THE BASIN OF THE RIO NEGRO AND THE AMAZON.
This is the central and largest basin of South America. It is exposed
to frequent equatorial rains, and the hot and humid climate develops a
force of vegetation to which nothing in the two continents can be
compared. The central basin, bounded on the north by the Parime group,
and on the south by the mountains of Brazil, is entirely covered by
thick forests, while the two basins at the extremities of the
continent (the Llanos of Venezuela and the Lower Orinoco, and the
Pampas of Buenos Ayres or the Rio de la Plata) are savannahs or
prairies, plains without trees and covered with gramina. This
symmetric distribution of savannahs bounded by impenetrable forests,
must be connected with physical revolutions which have operated
simultaneously over great surfaces.
(4a.) PART OF THE BASIN OF THE AMAZON, RUNNING FROM EAST TO WEST,
BETWEEN 2 DEGREES NORTH AND 12 DEGREES SOUTH; 880 LEAGUES IN LENGTH.
The western shore of this basin is formed by the chain of the Andes,
from the knot of the mountains of Huanuco to the sources of the
Magdalena.
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