SOUTH AMERICA. The Cordillera of the Andes follows the western coast of South America in a continuous mountain system from Cape Horn to the Isthmus of Panama. leaving a narrow strip of lowland between its base and the coast no where much more than a. hundred miles in breadth. In the south the system is narrow and simple, consisting in great part of a single range, which has no great height. Northward it in creases in altitude and becomes more complex. reaching a culminating point in the great peak of Aconcagua, in lat. 32° S.. which reaches the height of 23,080 feet, the loftiest summit in South America. Still farther north the peaks are not as high. hut the system broadens and becomes more complicated by the appearance of ranges in Argentina, east of the Andes proper. In lat. 18° S. the system curves to the northwest, following the coast: here it has a breadth of fully 300 miles, with two, and, in places, three main ranges, and encloses an elevated plateau, on which is situated Lake Titicaca, 12.045 feet high. Near this lake, in the Cordillera Real, are many high peaks, among them Ancohuma, 21,490 feet; Cacaca, 20,250 feet; and 21.192 feet.
Still following the coast, the system turns north again at the Gulf of Guayaquil, main- taining the form of a broad, elevated plateau, bordered by lofty ranges, with many volcanic peaks. In the neighborhood of the equator, in Ecuador, are many notable peaks, among them Tunguragua, 16.090 feet; Cotopaxi, 19,613 feet; Chimborazo, 20,49S feet; Antisana, 19,335 feet: Cayambe, 19.1S6 feet; and Pichin•ha, 15.918 feet. From this knot of lofty volcanoes the system falls off in altitude northward toward the Isthmus of Panama and the shores of the Carib bean Sea, splitting into three ranges, which trend away from one another to the north and northeast.
East of the Andes the level of the land descends rapidly to the Banos of the Orinoco, the valley of the Amazon, and the pampas of Argentina. This great area, comprising by far the greater part of South America, is but slightly diversified by hills. forming mainly an immense plain. In eastern Brazil is a mountain system standing on a broad plateau, and composed of many ranges, trending in general parallel to the coast. and having col
lectively a great breadth. The highest point in this system is Itatiaia, with an altitude of 10, 3-t0 feet. A similar but smaller plateau occupies much of the area of the Guianas. See AN DES, etc.
The islands pertaining to this grand division mainly to North America. In the Arc tic Ocean these land bodies are numerous and large, Greenland, almost continental in area, being the largest of them. West of Greenland, across Smith Sound, is the great extent of Grin nell Land, and south of this island are North Devon, Cockburn Land, and Baffin Land, with many other large islands to the west, including Bathurst. Melville, Prince of Wales, and _North Somerset islands, and Prince Albert and Banks Land, the whole forming an extensive archipel ago in the Arctic Sea. In Bering Sea, on the northwest of the continent, are many smaller islands, while the chain of the Aleutian Islands, stretching in a great curve, convex southward, from the point of the Alaskan Peninsula, partly separates Bering Sea from the Pacific. On the east side of the continent, the great island of Newfoundland partially closes the mouth of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Mainly within the tropics, and lying between the northern coast of South America and the southeast coast of the United States, are the West Indies, with Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and Porto Rico, known collectively as the Greater Antilles, and many smaller islands grouped about and stretching away from them. They are the unsubmerged portions of a mountain system. On the north side are the Bahamas. consisting of a large number of small coral islands, and on the southeast. stretching in a broad curve, convex to the east, to the south American coast, are the Lesser Antilles, all small, aml many of them of volcanic origin. The best known among them are Guadeloupe. Mar tinique, and Trinidad. South America has few islands, the Falkland Isles, east of the Strait of Magellan, being the largest, if we except Tierra del Fuego, at the south end of the continent. Off the west coast, and under the equator, are the Galapagos islands, once prominent as a source of guano.