CULTURE OF PEOPLE OF SOUTHEASTERN PANAMA 7 



ranges are often but little more than a chain of hills that give rise 

 to low passageways through the Cordillera. Three of these passes 

 are well known; the most westerly is the route from Colon, on the 

 Caribbean, to Panama, on the Bay of Panama on the Pacific; the 

 second pass constitutes the portage between the Mandinga and 

 Bayano Rivers; the third, extending from Caledonia Bay on the 

 Caribbean to the Gulf or Bay of San Miguel, by way of the Sucubti, 

 Clmcimaque, and the Tuyra Rivers. It was in the mountains sur- 

 rounding this pass that Balboa's famous peak, of which Keats 

 wrote, was located. 



The heavy rainfall, which reaches an annual total of 130 inches 

 at Colon on the Caribbean, but with a much smaller annual total 

 of only 71 inches at Panama on the southern side of the divide, to- 

 gether with the character of the local rock formations, serves to 

 account for the flood plains formed by the erosive action of the 

 water. Most of the large plains were formerly arms of the sea 

 that have now become flood plains. The heavy rainfall, with con- 

 sequent erosion, has covered the flood plains with a superimposition 

 of alluvial debris upon the coralline substratum of the low-lying 

 river valleys. In the valley of the Tuyra River and southward the 

 volcanic formations are accompanied by a faint odor of hydrogen 

 disulphide in the spring water, sometimes with as high a tempera- 

 ture as 110°. Such springs are used by the natives to effect cures 

 of itch and other diseases. 



Robert T. Hill * writes : 



Cross sections, via the drainageways and dividing cols, across the moun- 

 tains from the Gulf of San Bias and Caledonia Bay give the impression that 

 the country is composed of the older Tertiary sandstone and clays which have 

 been vertically folded and through which has been pushed a mass of 

 " sj-enite." This " syenitic " axis of the Cordillera San Bias is some 14 miles 

 in width, extends in an east and west direction, and is bordered on both sides 

 by the sandstones and clays through which it has been intruded. The Ter- 

 tiary sandstones in places are highly metamorphosed, forming a quartzite. 

 Around Santa Marta the Sierra is largely composed of eruptive granite. 



In the same article Hill refers to the known heights of the vari- 

 ous intercoastal mountain passes, as follows : The Culebra Pass, 287- 

 295 feet above the sea level; the Atrato-Sucubti Pass, 583 feet; the 

 Atrato-Napipi Pass, 778 feet; Caledonia Pass, 1,003 feet; the San 

 Bias Pass, 1,142 feet; and, finally, the Atrato-Morte Pass as reach- 

 ing the height of 1,143 feet. 



In Edward A. Goldman's work on the mammals of Panama 

 assertion is made that the geological structure and history of 

 Panama and Central America in general are, as yet, very imperfectly 

 known. " The attenuation of the isthmian region and the slight 



1 Bulletin, Museum of Comparative Zoology, vol. 28, p. 211. 



