perpetual snow. Thence the cordillera opens out northwards into the broad triple range of Colombia, which encloses wide river valleys of extraordinary richness and fertile savannahs, enjoying perpetual spring.

Lastly, it should be noted that some of the best part of South America begins where Africa ends. Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Capetown and Sydney lie approximately in the same latitude, about 34° or 35° south. But some of the best parts of Chile and Argentina stretch far to the south of this latitude. Alone of the southern continents, South America thrusts itself far through the cool regions of the temperate zone.

Hitherto, white settlement in South America has, in the main, followed the easiest lines, along the coast, upon the southern plains and up the river courses. Of the three great rivers, the Orinoco is the least developed, partly owing to natural difficulties—namely, an uneven shifting bed and great differences of water level—partly owing to artificial and political conditions; but in the wet season its waters admit navigation up the main stream and its principal western affluent, the Apure, almost to the foothills of the Colombian Andes; and the trade winds, blowing upstream, carry sailing craft half across the continent. Upon the Amazon system, Manaos, one of the great ports of Brazil, is 900 miles from the sea: Iquitos, 2300 miles from salt water, is accessible to the smaller class of ocean steamers. Upon the Paraná, 1000 miles from the ocean, stands the port of Asunción, capital of Paraguay, accessible to ocean ships of shallow draught and to large river steamers: stern-wheel steamers can mount the Paraguay River 1000 miles farther to the remote Brazilian port of Cuyabá.

The navigation of both these river systems, the Amazon and the River Plate, is limited or rather interrupted by the fourth great feature of the continent, the Brazilian plateau. The Paraná and its affluents plunge from this plateau to the southern plain in tremendous waterfalls. The southern tributaries of the Amazon pierce their way down into the Amazonian valley along defiles, cataracts and rapids sometimes extending scores of miles. The Amazonian affluents are mostly navigable from the main river to the foot of these cascades. Above the cascades, there stretch fresh reaches of navigable water, providing many paths into the far interior. Similar conditions are found on the two branches of the River Tocantins and on other Brazilian rivers, such as the São Francisco and the Paranahyba. With the future growth of population, the construction of lateral railways and, later, perhaps the partial canalisation of rivers, there is no limit to the possibilities of internal water communication. The wealth of water power which awaits application is obvious. As to possibilities of water storage and irrigation, it suffices to say that on the Lower Orinoco and also on the Lower Amazon the difference of water level between wet and dry seasons is at least fifty feet, and most of the affluents rise and fall proportionately.

The great Brazilian plateau, which has just been mentioned, further justifies the description of South America as the fertile continent—the region of habitable tropics. The vast scale of this plateau and its relation to the River Plate system justify its description here as a continental feature rather than a purely national feature, although it is mainly a national possession of Brazil. From the north-east shoulder of the Brazilian coast, this varied plateau, seamed by many clefts, stretches southwards and south-westward in a vast semi-circular sweep dividing the two river-systems. The Paraná and its affluents plunge from this plateau towards the south and west. Northwards and eastwards it sends a multitude of streams to the Amazon and the Atlantic. These Brazilian uplands naturally vary in character and productiveness, but they are in great part suitable for white habitation and especially for the grazing of cattle. There is no winter; there is little of excessive or torrid heat; the grass grows all the year round; and in the neighbourhood of some rivers, the grasslands are annually renovated by seasonable and shallow floods.

Among the republics, the United States of Brazil stand in a class apart, by virtue of the Portuguese origin and character of that country, its very distinct history and its immense size, occupying, as it does, more than half the continent. As to the republics of Spanish origin, no single classification suffices. The most obvious division is that which groups them into tropical and temperate countries. The five republics of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, which lie wholly within the tropics, form a group of states which were closely connected in the early history of emancipation and which are still marked by a general though not very close similarity in respect of geography and ethnological conditions. Chile and Argentina lie mainly in the temperate zone; Uruguay wholly so; and these, with the southern parts of Brazil, are the regions most obviously suitable for white settlement. These three southern republics may also be described as the most European part of the continent, whereas the five tropical republics have a large admixture of indigenous, and, in parts, also of negro, blood.

The small sub-tropical republic of Paraguay, secluded in the interior of the continent, does not quite fall into either group, but belongs to the system of River Plate countries. For the three Atlantic republics of the southern hemisphere, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, form a distinct group or sub-continent known as the "River Plate" and thus suggest a second classification into the Rio-Platense and the Andine states. Lastly, a glance at the map shows that Colombia and Venezuela differ from all their southern neighbours in that they border upon the Caribbean Sea, that Mediterranean Sea of the New World which stretches between the two continents. Thus these two republics complete the circle of that Mediterranean system of lands—the Antilles, Mexico, Central America, Panamá—in which the United States are the dominant Power and in which Great Britain, France and Holland are also members—one may perhaps say subsidiary members. Thus each of these republics of the Spanish Main has a dual character. They are on the one hand South American continental states; but their coasts also face the coasts of the United States, and their borders, to east and west, touch lands which are not purely Latin-American in character. Venezuela, both historically and actually, faces both ways. On the one hand she is the country of the Orinoco, of a vast continental interior: on the other hand she belongs also to the Antillean system: her eastern neighbour is British Guiana, and her territory almost locks fingers with the British island of Trinidad, which is in some sort the distributing commercial centre for all the Spanish Main. Thus Venezuela completes that long Antillean chain which curves from Florida to the Spanish Main, a chain whereof several links are in the possession of the United States. This dual character stands out in the early history of the country. For, during most of the colonial period, Venezuela was the only part of South America not attached to the Viceroyalty of Lima. Eastern Venezuela depended on the Audiencia of Santo Domingo and was thus connected with the Antilles and with the Viceroyalty of Mexico, that is to say with North America. Then followed a period of dependence on the Viceroyalty of Santa Fé de Bogotá, until finally Venezuela was erected into a separate Captaincy-general.

In the Republic of Colombia the dual position has been forced into prominence by recent events. On the one hand Colombia is a Pacific state, an Andine and continental country; yet her chief ports and arteries of communication lead northwards; and, until fifteen years ago, she bestrode the Isthmus of Panamá. In 1903 that Isthmus passed under the control of the United States; and Colombia, which formerly included the province of Panamá,