Original absence of pastoral life in America. Food furnished by the Mauritia palm; the Guaranis’ huts raised on trees 13-17 Since the discovery of America the Llanos have become more habitable. Extraordinary increase in the number of wild cattle, horses, asses, and mules. Description of the season of extreme dryness, and of the rainy season. Appearance of the surface of the ground and of the sky. Life of the animals--their sufferings, their conflicts; power of adaptation with which certain animals and plants are endowed. Jaguars, crocodiles, and electric fishes. Unequal conflict between Gymnoti and horses 17-23 Retrospective glance at the countries surrounding the Steppes and Deserts. Forest wildernesses of the Orinoco and the Amazons. Indian tribes separated by the wonderful diversity of their languages and differences of their habits; their hardships, and frequent variance between the different tribes. Figures graven on the rocks show that these solitudes were once the seat of a degree of civilisation which has now disappeared 23-26 _Scientific Elucidations and Additions_--p. 27 to p. 204. The island-studded lake of Tacarigua; its relations to the neighbouring mountain chains. Geological description. Progress of cultivation and of European civilisation. Varieties of the sugar-cane. Cacao plantations. Great fertility of soil associated within the tropics with insalubrity of atmosphere 27-33 “Banks” or broken strata. General horizontality of the surface. Subsidences of the surface 33-35 Resemblance of the distant steppe to the ocean. Naked stony crust. Tabular masses of syenite; whether prejudicial to health 36-37 General views respecting the mountain systems of North and South America, embracing the most recent information. Chains running in a south-west and north-east direction in Brazil and in the Atlantic portion of the United States of North America. The low province of Chiquitos; small swellings of the ground constitute the division between the waters of the Guaporé and Aguapehi in 15° and 17° S. lat., and between the river basins of the Orinoco and the Rio Negro in 2° and 3° N. lat. 37-39