COMPARATIVE ALTITUDES OF THE MOUNTAINS IN SPANISH NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA. The accompanying plate represents the elevations which some of the most noted summits attain in MEXICO or NEW SPAIN, contrasted with the altitudes of the higher peaks of the Southern Andes in QUITO, MERIDA, SANTA MARTA and CARACCAS; by which it will be readily seen, that the northern range of the _Cordillera of the Andes_, is not very inferior in height to that part of the chain which has been considered, till very lately, to reach an elevation unequalled by any other mountains in the world. Recent enquiries, and the researches of zealous travellers and geographers, have not only disclosed the fact, that the Asiatic summits rival and surpass those of Peru, but have also made it questionable whether the continuation of the Andean chain, south of _Chimborazo_, _Cotopaxi_, &c. is not far superior in altitude to those celebrated peaks. It is true, that the Cordillera sinks very much after it has passed the confines of PERU, and that it continues to lower its lofty crest in running through the vast deserts of _Atacama_, in the kingdom of LA PLATA, and the upper districts of CHILI; but no sooner has it passed these provinces, than it again assumes the same majestic form, and continues it in three parallel ridges, as far as the forty-fifth degree of south latitude, beyond which scarcely any thing is known of this enormous chain, excepting that its height is very great till it loses itself in the ocean of the south, opposite to Cape Pilares, the western entrance of the Straits of Magalhaens. From its quitting COPIAPO, the most northerly province of CHILI, till it arrives opposite to the great island of CHILOE and the archipelago of GUAYTECAS, is the space in which the Cordillera is conjectured to attain an elevation superior to that of the equatorial ridges of POPAYAN and QUITO; as in this space are the lofty peaks of the _Descabezado_, the _Tupungato_, _Blanquillo_, _Manflos_, _Longavi_, _Chillan_, and the _Corcobado_ or Gibbous mountain; all of which rise so far superior to the lower limits of perpetual congelation, that not only Molina, but other travellers have imagined they must be higher than the equinoctial range, though unfortunately all those who have had the opportunity of seeing them, have either been ignorant of the methods of determining their altitudes, or have been engaged in such active employments as to have precluded them from making any other than slight and general observations.