North South America

SOUTH AMERICA looks like a carrot, a turnip, a top, a funnel, a leaf, a fig, a pear turned upside down, a paddle, a lamb chop, a leg of mutton, an ice-cream cone—but the only thing it really looks like is: South America. The stem is Panama; the hook at the bottom is called Cape Horn.

From the tip top to the tip toe of South America, from Panama to Cape Horn, stretches a long wall of high mountains called the Andes. It is the highest range of mountains in the Western Half Ball, and it is the longest range of mountains

Columbus, who discovered America, had only one country named after him. This country is in South America nearest Panama, nearest the stem by which South America seems to hang to Central America. It is called Colombia, spelled with two o’s instead of an “o” and a “u.”

When white men first came to the northern shore of South America they found a land next to Colombia where the Indians lived in houses built on stakes in the water. This reminded them of a city in Italy across the ocean, called Venice, where the houses are built in the water, so they named this new country Little Venice, which in the Spanish language is Venezuela. Off the shore of Venezuela is a peculiar island called Trinidad. On this island is a lake—but the lake has no water in it. Instead of water there is a kind of tar called asphalt. This asphalt is dug up and loaded on to ships and brought to the United States to make roadways.

The three little countries next door to Venezuela are called the three Guianas. They belong to three different countries in Europe. In fact, they are the only countries in South America that do belong to countries outside of South America. The first Guiana belongs to England, the second belongs to Holland, the third belongs to France.