THE FALJ.S OF TEQUEXDAMA. 21 7 



The plain of Bogota was encircled with lofty moun- 

 tains ; and the perfect level of the soil, its geological 

 structure, the form of the rocks of Suba and Facatativa, 

 which rose like small islands in the midst of the savan- 

 nas, all served to indicate the existence of an ancient 

 lake. The Rio Funzha, into which flowed the waters of 

 the valley, forced its way through the mountains to the 

 south-west of Bogota. Kear the farm of Canoas this 

 river rushed from the plain by a narrow outlet into a 

 crevice, vvhich descended towards the basin of the Rio 

 Magdalt-na. Here were the celebrated falls of Tequen- 

 •lama. 'Oaking one pleasant day the road which led to 

 ^he falls, the travellers passed the village of Suacha, and 

 *h.e great farm of Canoas, famous for its crops of wheat. 

 At a umall distance from the farm, on the height of 

 Chipa, f-hey found themselves surrounded with oaks and 

 elms, and plants which recalled to their minds the vege- 

 tation of Europe. Looking down, as from a terrace, 

 «:hey discovered below them a country producing bana- 

 nas and sugar canes. They descended by a dangerous 

 pathway to the brink of the precipice, into which the river 

 threw itself. At a short distance above them it was one 

 hundred and forty feet broad, but as it drew near the fall 

 it contracted itself in a deep but narrow bed, scarcely forty 

 feet wide, and plunged at two bounds down a perpendi- 

 cular rock to the depth of six hundred and fifty feet. It 

 came on like a broad arch of glass ; as soon as it was over 

 the brink of the precipice it became a fleece of spray, which 

 was changed in its descent to mist. The mist rose, how- 

 ever, to a considerable height, and was crowned with glit- 

 terino^ rainbows. From the rockv sides of the crevice, 

 hung with shrubs and bushes, gushed innumerable springs 



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