. The earth and its inhabitants ... d deserts. Morasses. Glacial zones. Inhabitable lands. 930 Miles. sluggish waters drain to both basins. In the heart of the continent the upperaffluents of the Guapore and the Jauru are merged together during the rainyseason. The Rio Alegre, a tributary of the Amazons, has its source on thesouthern slope of the continent, and traverses a marshy parting-line beforesweeping round the Serra Agoapehy range of hills on its northern course to theGuapore. Nothing would be easier than to establish a permanent connection HYDEOGRAPHY OF SOUTH AMERICA. between tlie two
. The earth and its inhabitants ... d deserts. Morasses. Glacial zones. Inhabitable lands. 930 Miles. sluggish waters drain to both basins. In the heart of the continent the upperaffluents of the Guapore and the Jauru are merged together during the rainyseason. The Rio Alegre, a tributary of the Amazons, has its source on thesouthern slope of the continent, and traverses a marshy parting-line beforesweeping round the Serra Agoapehy range of hills on its northern course to theGuapore. Nothing would be easier than to establish a permanent connection HYDEOGRAPHY OF SOUTH AMERICA. between tlie two fluvial systems, either by a series of portages, or by cutting acanal four or five miles long across the divide. Other interminglings of riverbasins have also been developed farther east between the eastern affluents ofthe Paraguay and the Arinos, a main branch of the Amazonian Tapajoz, andattempts to connect them by cuttings were made in the years 1713 and 1845. Fig. 2.—Inhabitable Regions in South 1 : 70,000, Arid deserts. Morasses. Glacial 930 Miles. Inhabitable lands. Viewed as a whole, the South American hydrographie system is remarkablefor the prodigious volumes which are carried seawards by the main arteries, andmuch of which expands in the interior, not into deep lacustrine depressions, butin lateral backwaters and labyrinths of temporary channels, varying from year toyear, and from season to season, with the periodical flooding and subsidence ofthe main streams. 6 SOUTH AMEEICA—THE ANDES EEGIONS. Geolo-ists who liave studied the contours and general incline of these inlandreo-ions find that the movement of waters has been developed in two principaldirections, one parallel with the meridian, and indicated chiefly by the trend ofthe Parao-uay and of the Parana, the other intersecting the first at right angles,and flowino- from the Andes to the Atlantic. The Amazons, a liquid equator,as it has been called, follows the main axis of this seco
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectgeography, bookyear18
