made in Colombia between the years 1820- Cfw^ 18S0. 149 



ledge, in the hope that he may casually prove useful, and with 

 such humble pretensions can scarcely be deemed importunate. 

 Should even this apology barely extenuate the sterility of a 

 ten years' residence in a country so admiral)ly varied and rich 

 in natural phaenomena as Colombia, something further may 

 be urged in excuse of" the military traveller, obliged frequently 

 to hurry through the most interesting parts, and to vegetate 

 whole years in others of minor importance ; without books, 

 without instruments, without resources; fettered too often by 

 the chain of his own daily wants and sufferings, and fallen 

 on a time when every species of local or traditional informa- 

 tion, every glimmering of philosophic research, had been 

 buried and obliterated amid the storms and struggles of the 

 revolution. 



The geographical features of Colombia have been portrayed 

 by Humboldt with an accuracy which renders further descrip- 

 tion superfluous. It is however impossible to traverse this ex- 

 tensive territory without being struck by the physical phae- 

 nomena of a country where height produces the effects of 

 latitude, and where the changes of climate, with all the con- 

 sequent revolutions of animal and vegetable lile, are brought 

 about by localities, to which we find litde analogy in Europe. 

 The equatorial seasons, as is well known, are merely the wet 

 and dry ; and though the Spaniards, influenced by European 

 recollections, have given the former the name of winter " in- 

 vierno" it is during this period that nature revives from the 

 vegetable torpor which the scorching tropical heats produce in 

 the low-lands, in almost an equal degree with the frosts of 

 northern climates. In the vast plains which extend to the 

 south and east of the great chain of the Andes, the rainy sea- 

 son observes an invariable order. The Orinoco begins to 

 rise in April, and attains its maximum of increase in July and 

 August, when the immense savanas which extend to the 

 base of the Andes are converted into the appearance of an 

 inland ocean. It decreases from this period, and the summer 

 is reckoned from October to April. In the mountains, on the 

 contrary, the rains commence about the former month, and 

 predominate, with intervals of fair weather, till May or June. 

 The winter of the low-lands to the west and north of the Cor- 

 dillera, both on the Pacific and Atlantic coast, is governed 

 by that of the mountains, but with several curious local va- 

 rieties. Thus, the rainy season of Guayaquil is nearly as 

 regular as that of the plains, being reckoned from the middle 

 of December to the middle of May; while the thick forests 

 which, further to the north, cover the provinces of Esme- 

 raldas, Barbacoas, and Choco, produce by their constant eva- 

 poration an almost perpetual deluge. Wherever, on the con- 



