(_Presented to the Society December 19, 1890._)
Two years ago I selected for my annual address _Africa, or the Dark
Continent_; last year _Asia, the Land of Mountains and Deserts_; this
year I have chosen _South America, the Land of Rivers and Pampas_.
[Illustration: VOL. III, 1891, PL. 1. SOUTH AMERICA. From the
International Cylopedia, by permission of Dodd, Mead & Company.]
* * * * *
The recent meeting of the Pan-American Congress has called attention
to South America, a part of our continent under republican forms of
government and rich in products which we lack, while it relies mainly
on other foreign countries for goods which we manufacture. North
America and South America should be more closely united, for the one
is the complement of the other.
The prominent features of South America are its long ranges of
mountains--next to the Himalayas the highest in the world,--its great
valley, and its immense plateau extending from the Straits of Magellan
to the Caribbean sea.