THE
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE.
SOUTH AMERICA.
ANNUAL ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT,
GARDINER G. HUBBARD.
Two years ago I selected for my annual address Africa, or the DarkContinent; last year Asia, the Land of Mountains and Deserts; thisyear I have chosen South America, the Land of Rivers and Pampas.
| NAT GEOG. MAG. VOL. III, 1891, PL. 1. |
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| From the International Cylopedia, by permission ofDodd, Mead & Company. |
The recent meeting of the Pan-American Congress has called attentionto South America, a part of our continent under republican forms ofgovernment and rich in products which we lack, while it relies mainlyon other foreign countries for goods which we manufacture. NorthAmerica and South America should be more closely united, for the oneis the complement of the other.
The prominent features of South America are its long ranges ofmountains—next to the Himalayas the highest in the world,—its greatvalley, and its immense plateau extending from the Straits of Magellanto the Caribbean sea.
The Andes rise in the extreme south at Cape Horn, run in anortherly course through Patagonia and southern Chili; thencecontinuing in three nearly parallel ranges, the western chain calledthe Andes, the others known as the Cordilleras, through Peru,[p. 2]Bolivia and Ecuador to Colombia. The Cordilleras and the Andes areconnected in several places by knots or cross-chains of mountains. InColombia the Andes turn to the northwest, reaching their lowestelevation at the Panama canal, and continue thence, through CentralAmerica and North America as the Rocky Mountains, to the Arctic ocean.Near the source of the Magdalena and Cauca rivers in Colombia, theeastern range is deflected to the east along the northern coast ofSouth America. The central range disappears between the Magdalena andCauca rivers.
The Andes form the water-shed of the continent. The waters on thewestern slope flow into the Pacific ocean. The rivers that rise on theeastern slope, in northern Peru and Ecuador, force their way throughthe Cordilleras and at their foot drain the montaña of Bolivia, Peruand Brazil. In the southern part of Peru an