Southall Norwood—South America
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synods of the Dutch Reformed Church, those of the London Missionary Society and of other missionary bodies. J. W. Wessels, History of the Roman-Dutch Law, (Grahamstown 1908); G. T. Morice, English and Roman-Dutch Law (Grahamstown, 1903); W. H. S. Bell and M. Nathan, The Legal Hand Book of Practical Laws … in British South Africa (Grahamstown, 1905); C. H. van Zyl, The Judicial Practice of … South Africa generally (Cape Town, 1893); A. F. S. Maasdorp, The Institutes of Cape Law (Cape Town, 1903); E. H. Crouch, A Treasury of South African Poetry and Verse (2nd ed., 1909).
VII. Bibliographies.—H. C. Schunke Hollway, “Bibliography of South Africa … with special reference to geography. From the time of Vasco da Gama to … 1888,” Trans. S.A. Phil. Soc., vol. v. pt. 2 (Cape Town, 1898); Catalogue of the Books relative to Philology in the Library of Sir George Grey, vol. i. pt. i. The Dialects of South Africa (Cape Town, 1858); Books, Pamphlets and Articles on British South Africa (Birmingham Free Library, 1901), Mendelssohn’s South African Bibliography (2 vols. 1910). See also Africa: Bibliography. (F. R. C.)
Southall Norwood, an urban district in the Brentford parliamentary division of Middlesex, England, suburban to London, 12 m. W. of St Paul’s Cathedral, on the Great Western railway. Pop. (1891), 7896; (1901), 13,200. Brickfields, flour-mills and chemical works are established in the district, which is also largely residential. The Grand Junction Canal serves Southall. Cattle markets are held weekly under a grant of William III. The Elizabethan manor-house of Southall remains, and the parish church of Norwood, though greatly restored, has Early English and Decorated portions, a canopied tomb dated 1547 and brasses of the 17th century.
South Amboy, a city of Middlesex county, New Jersey, U.S.A., on Raritan Bay at the mouth of the Raritan river, about 27 m. S.W. of New York City. Pop. (1900) 6349 (1700 foreign-born); (1910) 7007. It is served by the Pennsylvania, the Central of New Jersey, and the Raritan River railways. A railway drawbridge and a traffic bridge across the river connect the city with Perth Amboy. South Amboy is an important point for shipments of coal from the Pennsylvania mines. The Pennsylvania Railroad Company and the Susquehanna Coal Company have coal docks here and the latter has great storage yards. Among the city’s industries are the mining of clay and sand, and the manufacture of terra cotta. South Amboy, originally a part of South Amboy township (incorporated in 1798), was laid out in 1835, was incorporated as a borough in 1888, and became a city under a general state law in 1908.
South America. The early physical history of the South American continent as recorded in the rocks has been extensively obliterated or greatly obscured by the events of its later history. The early land areas are supposedDevelopment of the Continent. to be only approximately suggested by the present exposures of granite and gneisses. The largest of these old land areas is along the east of the continent, extending with a few interruptions from the mouth of the Rio de la Plata to within a short distance of the mouth of the Amazon river. North of the present Amazon valley and occupying the present highlands of Guiana, north-east Brazil, and south-east Venezuela was another one of these old land areas—a large island or a group of islands. A chain of islands extended from the Falkland Islands along what is now the entire west side of the continent. Upon these ancient shores were laid down the sedimentary beds of the Cambrian seas. At the close of the Cambrian period the continent was elevated, many of the former islands were joined together, and the continental land area was considerably enlarged. The Silurian seas, however, still covered the basin of the Paraguay, extending from the Serra do Mar on the Brazilian coast to the axis of the Andes on the west, and covering at the same time a considerable part of the basin of the Rio São Francisco, filling the straits between the Andes and the Matto Grosso highlands and opening east through the region now occupied by the lower Amazon valley.
During the Devonian period there was a still further enlargement of the continent through elevation and the joining of islands, and the disappearance of the old Silurian sea in the basin of the Rio São Francisco on the east of the continent. In early Carboniferous times the sea still covered a narrow belt through the lower part of the Amazon valley, and part of what is now the Andes lying south of the equator. During Permian times the basin of the Paraguay and the south-east coast of Brazil was covered with lagoons and swamps in which here and there coal beds were laid down. At the close of this period molten lavas broke through the earth’s crust and flowed over and buried large areas in what is now Paraguay and south Brazil.
There was a general depression of the continent during the Cretaceous period and the ocean covered most of the continent as we now know it. The Serra do Espinhaço along the east coast of Brazil was above water and the coast line between the Rio de la Plata and Cape St Roque was little different from what it is at present. But through the highlands of Brazil from near Pernambuco west there was a broad sound containing many islands extending to the base of the Andes and possibly connecting with the Pacific Ocean. In the extreme north there were also many islands, bays and sounds, while a continental mass occupied the region of the Antilles. To the south the Atlantic Ocean filled most of the lower Paraguay basin and washed the eastern bases of the Andes. There was shallow-water connexion during this period between South America and southern India, through the Antarctic regions, probably by way of Australia.
In Early Tertiary times great changes took place in the geography of South America. The continent rose much higher than its present elevation, the coast-lines were extended oceanward, and the continent was considerably larger than it is at present. The Abrolhos Islands on the east coast of Brazil were then a part of the mainland and the Seashore was some 200 m. further east. The Falkland Islands were also at that time a. part of the continent, and South America had land connexion through the Antarctic regions or through the south Pacific Ocean with New Zealand and Australia, and through the West Indies region with Cuba and North America. Toward the close of Tertiary times the continent sank again beneath the ocean and salt water flowed into the Amazon and Orinoco valleys, turning the Guiana highlands again into an island or group of islands, and again separating the continent from land connexion with other continents. The valleys of Rio Magdalena, Rio Cauca and Lake Maracaibo were bays that covered large areas of adjacent territory.
It was during the Tertiary period that the continent took on its most characteristic features. Volcanic activity culminated; the Andes rose from low ridges and islands near sea-level to be one of the greatest mountain systems of the globe. This elevation was partly due to the uplifting of the continent en masse, partly to faulting and folding of the rocks, and partly to the pouring out of lavas and the accumulations upon the surface about vents of other volcanic ejectments. This volcanic activity was not confined to the main range of the Andes, but extended into Venezuela and the islands along the north coast, to the plains of Patagonia, the highlands of the Paraná basin and as far east as the islands of Fernando de Noronha. In recent times volcanic activity has greatly diminished over the continent and has entirely ceased along its eastern and north-eastern parts. The great elevation and depression of the continent deeply affected the climate over certain large areas. For example, along the east coast, where winds blew on-shore, the rainfall was greatly increased during the elevation, while the later depression brought about a corresponding diminution of the rainfall. In Pleistocene times the south of the continent stood somewhat lower than it does at present, so that the ocean covered the plains of Patagonia and La Plata. During the glacial epoch the south of the continent and as far north as latitude 27° on the west coast was covered with glaciers that flowed down from the high mountain ranges. On the east side of the mountains the glaciers did not extend so far north as they did on the west side. The glaciers through the high Andes were also larger and longer than they are at present; there were no glaciers in the eastern or Brazilian portion of the continent.
Physical Geography.—The South American continent rises abruptly from the ocean floor along nearly all of its coast, but the
steepness of the continental margin is more marked on the