Page 240 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

READING LESSONS. 239
valley running om north to south, and may be compared to the valley of the :Mississippi; while the Amazon, the great drain of .the lmv lands that stretch from the A des to the Atlantic, may be compared to the St. Lawrence of North America. This beauti l river, the ou et of the Canadian Seas, 2,000 miles long, and 90 miles broad at its mouth, is navigable r the largest vessels, 400 miles from the ocean. The :Mississippi, double the length of the St. Law­ rence, drains a sur ce of a million of square miles; and yet, the vast quanti of water which these rivers pour into the Atlantic is inconsiderable when com­ pared.with the immense volumes discharged into it by the Amazon and La Plata.
4. The Andes assume their greatest elevation in the vicinity of Quito; and what is commonly called the Valley Quito, is, in reality, a vast plateau, or table-land, as high as the lo iest summits of the Pyrenees, bounded by stpendous mountains, whose peaks are om 18,000 to 20,000 et above the level of the sea. Here the most considerable volcanoes of the· Andes are situated, of which Cotopaxi is the
·• highest and most remarkable, and its explosions the most dread l. In rm it is the most regular and beauti l of all the summits of the Andes, being that of a per ct cone. At sunset its appearance is one of the most splendid scenes in nature; its snow,clad
sides re ect the parting rays of the sun, and shine with dazzling lustre against the azure vault of heaven. Oa ambe ranks next to the celebrated Chimborazo in elevation; its rm is that of a cone, truncated or shortened: it is crossed by the equator, and stands, says Humboldt, "like one of the colossal and eternal
mountains placed by tho hand of nature to mark the grand divisions of the globe." From the burning
J