in diminishing- the Quantity of Water in Rivers. 93 



casion to admire, and more especially as it respects distances, 

 gives the length of the lake Fuquena at ten leagues, and its 

 breadth at three. By a very happy coincidence, Dr Roulin a 

 few years ago had occasion to construct a plan of this same 

 lake, and he found the dimensions to be a league and a half in 

 length and half a league in breadth. 



It may be conceived by some, that the dimensions adopted 

 by Piedrahita are exaggerated. But this is not my opinion ; 

 and, supporting myself on the one side by my barometrical ob- 

 servations, and on the other by the silence which all the an- 

 cient historians have maintained respecting the lake of Ubata, 

 a silence which is the more remarkable, since they have de- 

 scribed far less considerable bodies of water, I am inclined to 

 believe that, at the time that the Bishop of Panama visited this 

 country, there existed only a single lake, which extended with- 

 out interruption from Ubata to Fuquena. In this view the 

 calculation of Piedrahita is in no degree exaggerated. At any 

 rate, the fact of the retreat of the waters is much more import- 

 ant than the estimate of the extent of surface which is left bare, 

 a fact which is not questioned by any one. All the inhabitants 

 of Fuquena know well that the village was built quite close to 

 the lake, and now it is about three miles distant from it. In 

 former times, it was an easy matter to procure timber for build- 

 ing in the environs of Fuquena. The mountains, which rise 

 on all sides of the valley, used to be quite covered to a certain 

 height with the trees peculiar to these elevated regions. There 

 was the Cordillera oak (encinos) in abundance ; and also a great 

 many laurels (myrica), from which great quantities of wax were 

 procured. Now the mountains are nearly entirely bare ; which 

 great change is chiefly owing to the working the salt-springs of 

 Taosa and Enemocon. To all these authentic facts, whose 

 number might be increased, it may be replied, that the disap- 

 pearance of the water, however incontestible, might possibly 

 have occurred had there been no clearing of the ground ; and 

 it might be contended, that their failure is owing to a wholly 

 different, though it may be an unknown cause ; and so must 

 be ranked amongst the many phenomena whose existence is as- 

 certained, though any thing like satisfactory explication is be- 

 yond our power. 



