Cordillera Sentence Examples

Its situation near the high cordillera gives it a cold, changeable climate.

The Lower Tertiary consists largely of reddish sandstones resting upon the old rocks of the Cordillera and of the Sierras.

The coast, extending from the base of the Western or Maritime Cordillera to the Pacific Ocean, consists of a sandy desert crossed at intervals by rivers flowing through narrow, fertile valleys.

Paz Soldan and other Peruvian geographers give the name of Andes, par excellence, to the Eastern Cordillera.

In the mountains of British Columbia are the bighorn or Rocky Mountain sheep and the Rocky Mountain goat, while the saddleback and white mountain sheep have recently been discovered in the northern Cordillera.

It is nowhere disturbed by volcanic eruptions, except at the very edge of the formation near Lake Titicaca, and in this respect it differs essentially from the Maritime Cordillera.

Although the lake is fed by many small mountain torrents, it has no visible outlet, but probably communicates by an underground channel with one of the rivers which drain the Cordillera.

The first part consists of an alluvial, low-lying plain formed in great part by the detritus brought down by the mountain streams. It is irregular in form and is broken by isolated elevations and spurs from the Cordillera.

This is the most fertile and productive part of Ecuador, especially on the higher lands near the Cordillera.

On the east, the main cordillera abuts upon the region of plateaus and savannas, which occupies nearly half of the area of Nicaragua.

The principal river is the Segovia, which rises in the main cordillera due north of Lake Managua, winds E.N.E.

At the beginning of the 10th century, Nicaragua had few good roads, and none at all east of the main cordillera.

The city is situated on a plateau of the western slope of the Cordillera, 6988 ft.

I have seen the difficulty experienced in getting farms cultivated in this zone, on both sides of the Cordillera.

It follows exactly the curve of the mainland, and is continued into Panama, under the name of the Cordillera de Chiriqui.

Its course is north and north-west to the Colombian frontier, thence westward and north-west to the Pacific, breaking through the Western Cordillera on its way.

The Esmeraldas drains all that part of the central plateau lying between the transverse ridge of Tiupullo on the south, and the Imbabura ridge on the north, together with the western slopes of the Cordillera between Iliniza and Cotocachi, and a considerable part of the lower plain.

It rises in the Chillo valley in the vicinity of Cayambe, and flows across the northern end of the central plateau, breaking through the Western Cordillera between Cotocachi and Pichincha.

The Toachi and Quininde have their sources on the western slopes of the Cordillera.

The Babahoyo, which is the main stream, has its sources on the slopes of Chimborazo, the Daule on the Sandomo ridge in the latitude of Pichincha, the Yaguachi on the south-eastern slopes of Chimborazo, whence it flows southward for a considerable distance before breaking through the Cordillera to the western plain.

The upper end of the gulf is filling up with the silt brought down from the Cordillera.

The Eastern Cordillera is composed of gneiss, mica and chlorite schist and other crystalline rocks of ancient date; the Western Cordillera, on the other hand, is formed of porphyritic eruptive rocks of Mesozoic age, together with sedimentary deposits containing Cretaceous fossils.

The province extends from the Pacific coast eastward to the Cordillera Occidental, which forms the boundary line with Puno and the republic of Bolivia.

On the lower slopes of the Cordillera there are fertile irrigated valleys which produce grapes and olives for commercial purposes, and a considerable variety of fruits, cereals and vegetables for local consumption.

In the great lacustrine depression of Nicaragua is collected all the drainage from the eastern versant of the volcanic mountains, from the sheer western escarpment of the main cordillera, and from a large area of northern Costa Rica.

The main Nicaraguan cordillera, which flanks the depression on the east, has often been called the Cordillera de los Andes, from its supposed continuity with the mountain-chains of Panama and the west coast of South America.

But the evidence for past continuity is inconclusive, while there can be no doubt about the present severance of the two mountain systems. The main cordillera bears different names in different parts of Nicaragua.

Thus the important section which terminates at Monkey Point is commonly called the Cordillera de Yolaina.

The summits of the main cordillera seem nowhere to exceed 7000 ft.

Along the shores of the lakes the cordillera may be described as a double range, consisting of two series of ridges divided by a great longitudinal valley.

The lower series, which adjoins the lakes, rises near Lake Managua, and marches parallel to the main crest of the cordillera as far as the northern base of the Yolaina section; it then diverges, trending south-east nearly as far as Greytown, while the axis of the Yolaina section has a more easterly direction.

The surface is made up of extensive plains covered with sand and deposits of alkaline salts, broken by ranges of barren hills having the appearance of spurs from the Andes, and by irregular lateral ranges in the vicinity of the main cordillera enclosing elevated saline plateaus.

The deeply-indented coast line is filled with islands which preserve the general outline of the continent southward to the Fuegian archipelago, the outside groups forming a continuation of the Cordillera Maritima.

The western slopes of the Andes, with its spurs and lateral ranges, cover a broad zone on the eastern side of the republic, and the Cordillera Maritima covers another broad zone on its western side from about lat.

From the 52nd to about the 31st parallel this great mountain system, known locally as the Cordillera de los Andes, apparently consists of a single chain, though in reality it includes short lateral ranges at several points; continuing northward several parallel ranges appear on the Argentine side and one on the Chilean side which are ultimately merged in the great Bolivian plateau.

At the southern frontier of Bolivia the main chain, which has served as the boundary line between Argentina and Chile, divides into two great ranges, the principal one continuing almost due north along the eastern side of the great Bolivian alto-planicie, and the other forming its western rim, where it is known as the Cordillera Silillica, and then following the trend of the coast north-westward into Peru becomes the Cordillera Occidental.

The Chilean Andes correspond with the Western Cordillera of Bolivia and Peru, and consist almost entirely of Jurassic and Cretaceous beds, together with the products of the Tertiary eruptions.

On the eastern side of the Cordillera, in the extreme south, the climate is drier and open, and grassy plains are found, but on the western side the dripping forests extend from an altitude of moo to 1500 ft.

The Transandine section of this route crosses the Cordillera through the Uspallata pass.

Huaraz is situated in a narrow fertile valley of the Western Cordillera, at a considerable elevation above sea-level, and has a mild climate.

The greater part of its territory lies between the Magdalena and Cauca rivers and includes the northern end of the Central Cordillera.

From this point the line follows the summits of the Cordillera Silillica north to the Cerro Paquiza, on the Tacna frontier, and to the Nevado Pomarape, near the frontier of Peru.

From this point the line crosses the Cordillera Real through the valley of the San Juan del Oro to Suches Lake, follows the Cololo and Apolobamba ranges to the headwaters of the Sina river, and thence down that stream to the Inambari.

The western range, the Cordillera Occidental, a part of the boundary between Bolivia and the northern provinces of Chile, closely follows the coast outline and forms the western rampart of the great Bolivian tableland or alta-planicie, which extends from the Vilcanota knot in Peru, south to the Serrania de Lipez on the Argentine frontier, is 500 m.

The eastern rampart of this great plateau is formed by the Cordillera Oriental, which extends north-west into Peru under the name of Carabaya, and south to the frontier in broken ranges, one of which trends southeast in the vicinity of Sucre.

The main part of this great range, known as the Cordillera Real, and one of the most imposing mountain masses of the world, extends from the Peruvian border south-east to the 18th parallel and exhibits a series of snowcrowned peaks, notably the triple-crested Illampu or Sorata (21,490 ft.), Illimani (Conway, 21,204), Cacaaca (20,571) and Chachacomani (21,434).

Of the ranges extending south from the Cordillera Real and branching out between the 18th and 19th parallels, the more prominent are the Frailes which forms the eastern rampart of the great central plateau and which is celebrated for its mineral deposits, the Chichas which runs south from the vicinity of Potosi to the Argentine frontier, and the Livichuco which turns south-east and forms the watershed between the Cachimayo and Pilcomayo.

Between these and the Cordillera Oriental is an apparently confused mass of broken, intersecting ranges, which on closer examination are found to conform more or less closely to the two outside ranges.

West of the Cordillera Oriental, where special conditions prevail, a great desert plateau stretches entirely across one corner of the republic. Apart from the Andean system there is a group of low, broken, gneiss ranges stretching along the east side of Bolivia among the upper affluents of the Mamore and Guapore, which appear to belong to the older Brazilian orographic system, from which they have been separated by the erosive action of water.

The principal Bolivian tributary of the Mamore, the Guapay or Grande, which is larger and longer than the former above their confluence and should be considered the main stream, rises in the Cordillera Oriental east of Lake Pampa Aullaguas, and flows east to the north extremity of the Sierra de Misiones, where it emerges upon the Bolivian lowlands.

The principal tributaries of the Guapay are the Mizque, Piray or Sara and Yapacani, the last rising on the east slopes of the Cordillera Real, flowing east by Cochabamba to the sierras of that name where it breaks through with a great bend to the north.

The south-east drainage basin, which is smaller and economically less important than that of the Madeira, discharges into the Paraguay and extends from the Sierras de Chiquitos south to the Argentine frontier, and from the Cordillera Oriental east to the Paraguay.

It possesses only one large river in Bolivia, the Pilcomayo, which rises on the east slopes of the Cordillera Oriental opposite the south end of Lake Pampa Aullaguas and flows east and south-east through the sierra region to the Bolivian Chaco.

The eastern ranges of the Bolivian Andes are formed of Palaeozoic rocks with granitic and other intrusions; the Western Cordillera consists chiefly of Jurassic and Cretaceous beds, together with the lavas and ashes of the great volcanoes; while the intervening plateau is covered by freshwater and terrestrial deposits through which rise ridges of Palaeozoic rock and of a series of red sandstones and gypsiferous marls of somewhat uncertain age (probably, in part at least, Cretaceous).

The recent deposits, which cover so large a part of the depression between the Eastern and the Western Cordillera, appear to be partly of torrential origin, like the talus-fans at the foot of mountain ranges in other dry regions; but Lakes Titicaca and Pampa Aullaguas (Poopo) were undoubtedly at one time rather more extensive than they are to-day.

The volcanoes of Bolivia lie almost entirely in the Western Cordillera - the great summits of the eastern range, such as Illimani and Sorata, being formed of Palaeozoic rocks with granitic and other intrusions.

Farther north, and east of the Cordillera Oriental, rains fall throughout the year, though the summer months (November - March) are usually described as the rainy season.

On the west side of the Cordillera, which extracts the moisture from the prevailing easterly winds, the elevated plateaus have a limited rainfall in the north, which diminishes toward the south until the surface becomes absolutely barren.

To the south of the lake rises the south-eastern prolongation of the Cordillera of the Andes, with ridges of a uniform height of 3500 ft., in which predominate crystalline schists which do not seem to be very old.

The Western Cordillera branches from the main range first and follows the coast very closely as far north as the 4th parallel, where the San Juan and Atrato rivers, thoughflowing in opposite directions and separated near the 5th parallel by a low transverse ridge, combine to interpose valleys between it and the Cordillera de Baudo, which thereafter becomes the true coast range.

Between the 5th and 6th parallels the range divides into two branches, the eastern passing into Venezuela, where it is called the Cordillera de Merida, and the northern continuing north and north-east as the Sierra de Perija and the Sierra de Oca, to terminate at the north-eastern extremity of the Goajira peninsula.

It stands detached from the lower ranges of the Eastern Cordillera, and gives the impression that it is essentially independent.

The eastern Cordillera region is noteworthy for its large areas of plateau and elevated valley within the limits of the vertical temperate zone.

The Cordillera de Baudo, which becomes the coast range above lat.

The Eastern Cordillera is in some respects the most important of the three branches of the Colombian Andes.

Its general elevation is below that of the Central Cordillera, and it has few summits rising above the line of perpetual snow, the highest being the Sierra Nevada de Cocui, in lat.

The Patia is the longest river of the Pacific group, and is the only one having its sources on the eastern side of the Western Cordillera.

The canyon of the Patia through the Western Cordillera is known as the "Minima gorge," and has been cut to a depth of 1676 ft., above which the perpendicular mountain sides rise like a wall some thousands of feet more.

There is a narrow belt of low, swampy country between the Cordillera and the coast, traversed at intervals by mountain spurs, and across this the river channels are usually navigable.

It rises in the angle between the Western Cordillera and a low transverse ridge connecting it with the Baudo coast range, and flows westward down to the valley between the two ranges, and then southward through this valley to about lat.

The Bacuba, Suriquilla or Leon, is a small stream rising on the western slopes of the Cordillera and flowing into the upper end of the Gulf of Uraba.

The principal tributaries are the Piendamo, Ovejas, Palo, Amaime and Nechi, from the central Cordillera, of which the last named is the most important, and the Jamundi and a large number of small streams from the Western.

It rises on the eastern slopes of the Eastern Cordillera between the 3rd and 4th parallels, about 75 m.

The Western Cordillera is the direct continuation of the Western Cordillera of Ecuador, and, like the latter, to judge from the scattered observations which are all that are available, consists chiefly of sandstones and porphyritic rocks of the Cretaceous series.

The Central Cordillera is the direct continuation of the Eastern Cordillera of Ecuador, and is formed chiefly of gneiss and other crystalline rocks, but sedimentary deposits of Cretaceous age also occur.

Finally the Eastern branch, known as the Cordillera of Bogota, is composed almost entirely of Cretaceous beds thrown into a series of regular anticlinals and synclinals similar to those of the Jura Mountains.

The higher masses of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta cover a very limited area, leaving the trade winds a comparatively unbroken sweep across the northern plains until checked by the Western Cordillera, the Panama ranges and the Sierra de Baudo, where a heavy precipitation follows.

The temperate and subtropical regions cover the greater part of the departments traversed by the Eastern Cordillera, the northern end of the Central Cordillera, the Santa Marta plateaus, and the Upper Cauca Valley.

On the other hand, a luxuriant forest growth covers a very large part of the republic, including the southern plains of the Amazon tributaries, the foothills, slopes and valleys of the Cordilleras, a larger part of the northern plains, and the whole surface of the Western Cordillera and coast.

In some of the more thickly settled and prosperous districts of the Eastern Cordillera these bridle paths have been so much improved that they may be considered reasonably good mountain roads, the traffic over them being that of pack animals and not of wheeled vehicles.

It is estimated that the revolutionary struggle of 1899-1903 destroyed to% of the ablebodied agricultural population of the Santa Marta district, and this estimate, if true, will hold good for all the inhabited districts of the Eastern Cordillera.

The Nupe rises in the Cordillera de Huayhuath and is the true source of the Maranon.

The only regular ranges in Panama are in the extreme western part where the Costa Rica divide continues into Panama, and, immediately south of this and parallel to it, the Cordillera of San Blas, or Sierra de Chiriqui, where the highest peaks are Chiriqui (11,265 ft.) and, on the Costa Rican boundary, Pico Blanco (11,740 ft.) and Rovalo (7020 ft.) there are two passes, 3600 and 4000 ft.

The climate is hot and dry, and there is no cultivation of the soil except in the valleys of the Cordillera and a few other places where irrigation is possible.

The main axis of the Great Cordillera - so termed originally by Sir Roderick Murchison - bordering the eastern coast-line of Australia, may be traced across Bass Strait in the chain of islands forming the Furneaux and Kent group, which almost continually link Tasmania with Wilson's Promontory, the nearest and most southerly part of the Australian mainland.

The Andean range is composed of two great principal chains with a deep intermediate depression, in which, and at the sides of the great chains, arise other chains of minor importance, the chief of which is that called the Cordillera de la Costa of Chile.

The eastern disappears in the centre of Argentina, and it is therefore only the Cordillera de los Andes that is prolonged as far as the south-eastern extremity of the continent.

The Cordillera de la Costa begins near Cape Horn, which is composed principally of crystalline rocks, and its heights are inconsiderable when compared with those of the trueCordillera of the Andes.

The Cordillera of the Andes in Tierra del Fuego is formed of crystalline schists, and culminates in the snowcapped peaks of Mount Darwin and Mount Sarmiento (7200 ft.), which contains glaciers of greater extent than those of Mont Blanc. The extent of the glaciers is considerable in this region, which, geographically, is more complex than was formerly supposed.

The insular region between Mount Sarmiento and the Cordillera de los Andes, properly so called, i.e.

As Admiralty Sound and Lake Fagnano bound the Cordillera to the north in Tierra del Fuego, so at the eastern side of the Cordillera in the southernmost part of the continent there is a longitudinal depression which separates the Andes from some independent ridges pertaining to a secondary parallel broken chain called the pre-Cordillera.

The Jurassic and Cretaceous formations, which in the Southern Cordillera are situated outside of the range to the east, form to a considerable extent the mass of the great range, together with quartz porphyry, the Tertiary, granite and other eruptive rocks, which have been observed along all the chain in South America up to Alaska in the north.

Gneiss is seldom met with, but there are crystalline rocks, belonging chiefly to the pre-Cordillera of the eastern and to the Cordillera de la Costa on the western side.

P. Giissfeldt in 1883, the Cordillera is composed of two huge principal ridges which unite and terminate in the neighbourhood of Mount Tupungato.

While in the west of the Andes, from the latitude of Aconcagua, the central valley of Chile runs without any notable interruption to the south end of the continent, a valley which almost disappears to the north, leaving only some rare inflexions which are considered by Chilean geographers and geologists to be a continuation of the same valley; to the east in Argentina a longitudinal valley, perfectly characterized, runs along the eastern foot of the Cordillera, separating this from the preCordillera, which is parallel to the Cordillera de la Costa of Chile.

To the north of Mount Potro the peaks in the Cordillera are not very prominent as far as the great mass of Tres Quebradas, but here are to be met with some that may be considered as amongst the highest of.

To the north of Tres Cruces is a transversal depression in the Cordillera, which is considered to be the southern termination of the high plateau of the Puna de Atacama.

The Cordillera of the Andes borders the Puna to the west, while the Bolivian Cordillera Real bounds it to the east.

While the western range of the Cordillera is principally formed by volcanic rocks, the eastern (to the east of the range is Cerro Potosi, 15,400 ft.) Andes of Bolivia are chiefly composed of old crystalline rocks.

The discovery of great Pampean mammals in the Pleistocene beds of that region shows that this upheaval of the latter is very recent, for in the heart of the Cordillera, as well as on the west coast of Bolivia and Peru, there have been discovered, in very recent deposits, the remains of some mammals which cannot have crossed the high range as it now exists.

In Bolivia this eastern ridge, separated from the western Cordillera by the longitudinal valley in which Lake Titicaca lies, is formed chiefly of Archaean and Palaeozoic rocks.

Sometimes they rise from the Mesozoic zone of the western Cordillera, sometimes from the ancient rocks of the eastern zone.

We'll touch the desert coast at Trujillo, Peru's second city, then climb again into the northern cordillera.

When the attempt was made to mark this boundary the commissioners were unable to agree on a line across the Puna de Atacama in the north, where parallel ranges enclosing a high arid plateau without any clearly defined drainage to the Atlantic or Pacific, gave an opportunity for conflicting claims. In the south the broken character of the Cordillera, pierced in places by large rivers flowing into the Pacific and having their upper drainage basins on the eastern side of the line of highest crests, gave rise to unforeseen and very difficult questions.

Another expedition from Chile, under Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, crossed the Cordillera in 1559, and having defeated the Araucanian Indians, made a settlement which from the name of the leader was called Mendoza.

The vast cordillera of the Great Dividing Range originates in the south-eastern corner of the con tinent, and runs parallel with and close to the eastern shore, through the states of Victoria and New South Wales, right up to the far-distant York Peninsula in Queensland.

The mountain ranges which form part of the great Mexican Plateau consist of two marginal chains known as the Sierra Madre Occidental, on the west, the Sierra Madre Oriental, on the east, and a broken, weakly-defined chain of transverse ranges and ridges between the 18th and 10th parallels known as the Cordillera de Anahuac. All these chains are known locally under diverse names.

The largest branch of the Cauca on its western side, however, is the San Jorge, which, though rising in the Western Cordillera on the northern slopes of the Alto del Viento, in about lat.

The Meta rises on the opposite side of the Cordillera from Bogota, and flows with a sluggish current east-north-east across the llanos to the Orinoco, into which it discharges below the Atures rapids, in lat.

Other options include white-water rafting or a half day 's mountain biking in the Cordillera Negra.

For example, the Cordillera from the northern Philippines contains movements representing such everyday tasks as carrying water - but does it in a way that makes it graceful and balanced.

When its vast area stretching from the international boundary to beyond the Arctic circle is opened up, it may be expected to prove the counterpart of the great mining region of the Cordillera in the United States to the south.

Farther north the rainfall becomes heavier, the plateau is covered with vegetation, and a considerable number of small rivers flow westward through the Cordillera to the Pacific. The Eastern Cordillera, or Andes, forms the water-parting between the two systems. The largest of the eastward-flowing rivers is the Napo, which rises in the eastern defiles of Cotopaxi and Sincholagua - the principal source being the Rio del Valle, which traverses the Valle Vicioso.

The Pastaza, or Pastassa, unlike the rivers already described, has its source on the central plateau west of the principal chain of the Andes, within the shadow of Cotopaxi, and breaks through the Cordillera to the north of Tunguragua.

Beginning with the province of Aconcagua the coast elevations crystallize into a range of mountains, the Cordillera Maritima, which follows the shore line south to the province of Llanquihue, and is continued still farther south by the mountain range of Chiloe and the islands of the western coast, which are the peaks of a submerged mountain chain.

Previous to the existence of the strait, and across its site, there poured into Australia a wealth of Papuan forms. Along the Pacific slope of the Queensland Cordillera these found in soil and climate a congenial home.

Lofty lines of fold mountains form the " backbones " of North America in the Rocky of Mountains and the west coast systems, of South America in the Cordillera of the Andes, of Europe in the Pyrenees, Alps, Carpathians and Caucasus, and of Asia in the mountains of Asia Minor, converging on the Pamirs and diverging thence in the Himalaya and the vast mountain systems of central and eastern Asia.

These ranges appear to belong to two systems. The Cordillera of Merida is one of the branches of the Andes, and the strike of the folds which compose it is usually from south-west to north-east.

At the junction of 2 D the Cauches with that river, that Ecuadorean line descends the Chinchipe to the Maranon, and the Peruvian ascends to a point where it is intersected by a line following the eastern Cordillera northward to the head-waters of the Caqueta, or Japura, which forms the northern boundary down to the Brazilian frontier.

The line adopted starts from Lake Suches, the source of a small river of that name flowing into the north of Lake Titicaca, crosses the Cordillera by the Palomani to the Tambopata river, follows that stream to the mouth of the Lanza, thence crosses to the source of the Heath river, which forms the dividing line down to its junction with the Madre de Dios, descends that river to the mouth of the Torosmonas, thence in a straight line north-westerly to the intersection of the Tahu.amanu river by the 69th meridian, and thence north on that meridian to the Brazilian frontier.

The Western Cordillera, overhanging the Peruvian coast, contains a long line of volcanic mountains, most of them inactive, but their presence is probably connected with the frequent and severe earthquakes, especially in the southern section of the coast.

Near the Cordillera and on its lower slopes a tall branched cactus is met with, and there are Salicornias and Salsolas near the coast.

In most parts ofithe Peruvian Andes the line of perpetual snow is at 16,400 ft.; but on the Cordillera Nevada, above the Callejon de Huaylas, it sinks to 15,400 ft.

The Huallaga rises north of Cerro Pasco, and, passing Huanuco, flows northwards on the other side of the Central Cordillera for 300 m.

The country between the Huallaga and the Ucayali, traversed by the Eastern Cordillera, is called the Pampa del Sacramento, and is characterized by extensive grassy plains.

Similar rocks are also found in the Cordillera Negra, but the volcanic centres appear to have been in the Sierra Nevada.

The department includes an arid, sand-covered region on the coast traversed by deep gorges formed by river courses, and a partly barren, mountainous region inland composed of the high Cordillera and its spurs toward the coast, between which are numerous highly fertile valleys watered by streams from the snow-clad peaks.

The peaks of the Guatemala Cordillera rise round it, culminating near its southern end in the volcanoes of San Pedro (7000 ft.) and Atitlan (11,719 ft.).

To a part of these ranges has been given the name of Cordillera de Anahuac, but there is no true cordillera across this part of Mexico.

The Mesozoic sediments were almost entirely laid down to the west and south-west of the protaxis, upon the fiat-lying Palaeozoic rocks, and in the prairie region they are still almost horizontal; but in the Cordillera they have been thrust up into the series of mountain chains characterizing the Pacific coast region.

The Rocky Mountain region as a whole, best named the Cordillera or Cordilleran belt, includes several parallel ranges of mountains of different structures and ages, the eastern one constituting the Rocky Mountains proper.

The several ranges of the Cordillera show very different types of structure and were formed at different ages, the Selkirks with their core of pre-Cambrian granite, gneiss and schists coming first, then the Coast Ranges, which seem to have been elevated in Cretaceous times, formed mainly by a great upwelling of granite and diorite as batholiths along the margin of the continent and sedimentary rocks lying as remnants on their flanks; and finally the Rocky Mountains in the Laramie or early Eocene, after the close of the Cretaceous.

Paraguay proper, or the country between the Paraguay and the Parana, is traversed from north to south by a broad irregular belt of highlands, which are known as the Cordillera Ambaya, Cordillera Urucury, &c., but partake rather of the character of plateaus, and form a continuation and outwork of the great interior plateau of Brazil.

The eastern part of this territory is also claimed by Peru, which would have the effect, if allowed, of restricting Ecuador to a comparatively small area covered by the Andes and western Cordillera and the narrow plain on the Pacific coast.

This, however, is erroneous, for Whymper located a detached range running parallel with the Cordillera on the west, for a distance of 65 m.

In the western Sierras, which are more or less closely attached to the main chain of the Cordillera, Cambrian and Silurian fossils have been found at several places.

Elsewhere the plants generally indicate a higher horizon and are considered to correspond with the Rhaetic of Europe_ Jurassic beds are known only in the Cordillera itself, and the Cretaceous beds, which occur in the west of the country, are of freshwater origin.

As far west, therefore, as the Cordillera, there is no evidence that any part of the region was ever beneath the sea in Mesozoic times, and the plant-remains indicate a land connexion with Africa.

Flowing through the narrow valley between the Cordillera and coast range, it has only short tributaries, the principal ones being the Truando, Sucio and Murri.

The oldest rocks in the country are the granites, gneisses, &c., of the southern massif and the crystalline schists which form the axis of the Cordillera and the Caribbean chain.

The Cretaceous beds form a band along each side of the Cordillera and along the southern flank of the Caribbean chain, and they spread over the greater part of the provinces of Falcon and Lara.

The Nepena, Casma, Huarmey, Fortaleza and Supe rivers rise on the slope of an outer range called the Cordillera Negra, and are consequently dry during the great part of the year.

Here the Western Cordillera recedes, and the important valley of Arequipa, though on its western slope, is 7000 ft.

These three chains are called the Western or Maritime Cordillera, the Central Cordillera and the Andes.

The Maritime Cordillera of Peru has no connexion with the coast ranges of Chile, but is a continuation of the Cordillera Occidental of Chile, which under various local names forms the eastern margin of the coastal desert belt from Atacama northward into Peru.

This greater cold is caused by the intervention of the Cordillera Negra, which intercepts the warmth from the coast.

At the point where the river Santa breaks through the Cordillera Negra that range begins to subside, while the Maritime Cordillera continues as one chain to and beyond the frontier of Ecuador.

The Central Cordillera is the true water-parting of the system.

The Central Cordillera consists mainly of crystalline and volcanic rocks, on each side of which are aqueous, in great part Jurassic, strata thrown up almost vertically.

The more southerly of the two Costa Rican ranges, known as the Cordillera de Talamanca, rises south of the Gulf of Nicoya, and extends midway between the two oceans towards the south-east.

In the main it is a broad trough, wider towards the north than towards the south, and unsymmetrical, Hudson Bay occupying much of its north-eastern part, while to the west broad plains rise gradually to the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains, the eastern member of the Cordillera which follows the Pacific coast of America.

The eastern chain is known as the Andes of Ecuador, or the Cordillera Oriental, and the western as the Cordillera Occidental (Western Cordillera).

Turning to the Cordillera Occidental and taking the principal peaks in order from south to north, the first to claim attention is Chimborazo (from Chimpu-raza, " mountain of snow "), the highest summit of Ecuador, and once believed to be the culminating point of the Andes.

The Cordillera, which bounds them on the west, is formed of folded beds, while the Sierras which rise in their midst, consist mainly of gneiss, granite and schist.

In the Cordillera Nevada the Mesozoic rocks which form the chain are often covered by masses of modern volcanic rock.