Now if, in the indefinite course of time, (which we cannot refuse to nature, and which is only to be traced in those effects), the chymical and mechanical operations of the surface are capable of diminishing the mass of land above the level of the sea, (of which fact the appearances here so well described by M. Reboul, and those which are every where else to be observed, leave no room to doubt); and, if the wise system, of a world sustaining plants and animals, requires the long continuance of a continent above the surface of the sea, What reason have we to look out for any other causes, besides those which naturally arise from that constitution of things?  And, Why refuse to see, in this constitution of things, that wisdom of contrivance, that bountiful provision, which is so evident, whether we look up into the great expanse of boundless space, where luminous bodies without number are placed, and where, in all probability, still more numerous bodies are perpetually moving and illuminated for some great end; or whether we turn our prospect towards ourselves, and see the exquisite mechanism and active powers of things, growing from a state apparently of non-existence, decaying from their state of natural perfection, and renovating their existence in a succession of similar beings to which we see no end.

We have been comparing similar operations of nature in different countries; but at present we have something farther in our view than to compare the distant regions of the earth.  We want to see if it be the same system that is observed in the higher regions of the globe as in the lower.  We shall thus have investigated the subject as far as we can go.

The high region of the Andes and Cordeliers affords an opportunity of deciding that question.  It is there that we find a habitable country raised above the rest of the earth.  It is there that nature, in elevating land, has proceeded upon a larger scale.  Here, therefore, in the operations of water upon the surface of the earth, we are to look for effects proportioned to the cause.

Let us cast our eye upon the southern continent of the new world; there is not, from the one end to the other, any great river that flows to the sea upon the west side.  A ridge of mountains, at no great distance from the coast, divides the water of this continent; a small part runs to the west; the most part runs to the east; and forms a country which, for fertile plains and navigable rivers, has not its equal upon the globe.

But let us observe the course of the rivers; while confined by the ridges of the Andes and Cordeliers; they run either south or north, and are thus for some time constrained to take a course very different from that which they are afterwards to pursue.  It is while thus retained within the ridges of the Andes that those rivers water plains which they had formed; and it is here that we find countries so much elevated above the rest of the world, that, under the direct rays of the sun, their inhabitants are made to suffer from the cold.