Description of the South American plains and prairies—their extent and climate; the latter dependent on the outline of the coasts, and on the hypsometric conformation of the New Continent. Comparison with the plains and deserts of Africa [7]–[13]
Original absence of pastoral life in America. Food furnished by the Mauritia palm; the Guaranis’ huts raised on trees [13]–[17]
Since the discovery of America the Llanos have become more habitable. Extraordinary increase in the number of wild cattle, horses, asses, and mules. Description of the season of extreme dryness, and of the rainy season. Appearance of the surface of the ground and of the sky. Life of the animals—their sufferings, their conflicts; power of adaptation with which certain animals and plants are endowed. Jaguars, crocodiles, and electric fishes. Unequal conflict between Gymnoti and horses [17]–[23]
Retrospective glance at the countries surrounding the Steppes and Deserts. Forest wildernesses of the Orinoco and the Amazons. Indian tribes separated by the wonderful diversity of their languages and differences of their habits; their hardships, and frequent variance between the different tribes. Figures graven on the rocks show that these solitudes were once the seat of a degree of civilisation which has now disappeared [23]–[26]
Scientific Elucidations and Additions—p. [27] to p. [204].
The island-studded lake of Tacarigua; its relations to the neighbouring mountain chains. Geological description. Progress of cultivation and of European civilisation. Varieties of the sugar-cane. Cacao plantations. Great fertility of soil associated within the tropics with insalubrity of atmosphere [27]–[33]
“Banks” or broken strata. General horizontality of the surface. Subsidences of the surface [33]–[35]
Resemblance of the distant steppe to the ocean. Naked stony crust. Tabular masses of syenite; whether prejudicial to health [36]–[37]
General views respecting the mountain systems of North and South America, embracing the most recent information. Chains running in a south-west and north-east direction in Brazil and in the Atlantic portion of the United States of North America. The low province of Chiquitos; small swellings of the ground constitute the division between the waters of the Guaporé and Aguapehi in 15° and 17° S. lat., and between the river basins of the Orinoco and the Rio Negro in 2° and 3° N. lat. [37]–[39]
Continuation of the chain of the Andes north of the isthmus of Panama (through the Aztec country, where Popocatepetl, 16626 French, or 17720 English feet high, has very recently been again ascended by Captain Stone) in the Sierra de las Grullas and the Rocky Mountains. Excellent scientific investigations of Captain Frémont. The longest barometric levelling ever made, showing a profile or vertical section of the earth’s surface through a space of 28° of longitude. Culminating point of the route from the coast of the Atlantic to the Pacific. “South Pass,” south of the Wind River Mountains. Swelling of the ground in the Great Basin. Long contested existence of the Timpanogos Lake. Coast Chain, Maritime Alps, or Sierra Nevada of California. Volcanic eruptions. Falls of the Columbia [39]–[50]