330 On a Communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 



flows from the lofty Andes of Antioquia, and falls into the Atrato at some 

 distance* above its mouth. 



Besides these rivers, there are several others flowing from the west, of 

 which no notice is taken in the map given in Humboldt's personal narra- 

 tive j but many of which may be presumed to be of as much importance 

 as the Napipi, and capable like it of being made, in conjunction with other 

 rivers falling into the Pacific, the channels of commercial intercourse from 

 the Atlantic to the Pacific. Among the rivers capable of being rendered 

 subservient to this object, the author of the article already quoted from the 

 Quibdo Journal, speaks of the Jurado which falls into the Pacific, and the 

 Trucundo a tributary of the Atrato. But possessing no information what- 

 ever respecting these rivers, beyond the mere enunciation of their names 

 and the basins into which they fall, it would be impossible to arrive at any 

 conclusion, with respect to the advantages or disadvantages of substitut- 

 ing them for the Napipi and the bay of Cupica. 



From what has been observed respecting the basin of the Atrato, the 

 almost incessant torrents which must descend into it from the wooded 

 heights, which inclose it for about three-fourths of its course, the magni- 

 tude of the tributaries which on either side contribute to swell its flood, 

 and the almost rectilineal direction of its bed for so considerable a portion 

 of its course, we are almost at a loss to account for the small velocity of 

 its current, as stated in the Reverberacion Mercantile otherwise than upon 

 the supposition of the inclination of its bed deviating but little from the 

 horizontal, and the actual force of the current resulting rather from the 

 vis a tergo than from the degree of the declivity : and this supposition is 

 in the strictest accordance with the evidence given by Humboldt, who in- 

 forms us that " in the Choc6 del Norte the mountains lower to such a 

 degree, that, between the Gulph of Cupica and the Rio Naipi, they dis- 

 appear altogether."t 



* Latitude 7° 45', longitude 77° 00'. 



f " In order to form a precise idea of this absence of mountains at the Southern 

 extremity of Panam^, we must bear in mind the general outline of the Cordilleras. 

 The chain of the Andes is divided at the 2" and 5° of latitude into three chains, and 

 the two longitudinal vallies that separate those chains, form the basins of the Mag- 

 dalena and the Rio Cauca. The Eastern branch of the Cordilleras inclines towards 

 the N. E. and joins itself by the mountains of Pamplune and Grita, to the Sierra 

 Nevada de Merida ; and the chain of the coast of Venezuela, and the intermediate and 

 western branches of Quindiu and Choco, run into one another in the province of 

 Antioquia, between the 5° and 7° of latitude, and form a groupe of mountains of 

 considerable breadth, stretching by the Valle del Osas, and the Alto del Viento, to- 

 wards Cazeres, and the elevated savannahs of Tolu. Further west, in the Choco del 

 Norte the mountains lower to such a degree, that, between the Gulph of Cupica and 

 the Rio Naipi, they disappear altogether. It is the astronomical position of that 

 isthmus, and the distance from the mouth of the Atrato to its confluence with the 

 Rio Naipi (.Napipi), that should be fixed with precision, — Pers. Narr. vol. vi. p. 251, 

 &c. 



