514 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



mostly large -flower ing laurel and myrtle-leaved alpine shrubs 

 Escallonia tubar, Escallonia myrtilloides, Chuquiraga insignis, 

 Aralice^ Weinmannice, Frezierce, Gualtherice, and Andromeda 

 reticulata, may be regarded as the representatives of the 

 physiognomy of this vegetation.* To the south of the town 

 of Santa Fe de Bogota lies the celebrated Paramo de la Suma 

 jPaz, an isolated mountain group, in which, according to Indian 

 legends, great treasures are concealed; and hence issues a 

 small stream or brook, which pours its foaming waters through 

 a remarkable natural bridge in the rocky ravine of Icononzo. 



In my Latin treatise, De Distributione geographica Planta- 

 rum secundum cceli temperiem et altitudinem montium, 1817, 

 p. 104, I have thus endeavoured to characterise these Alpine 

 regions: " Altitudine 1700 1900 hexapod : asperrimse so- 

 litudines, quae a colonis hispanis uno nomine Paramos appel- 

 lantur, tempestatum vicissitudinibus mire obnoxiac, ad quas 

 soluta3 et emollitse defluunt nives ; ventorum flatibus ac nim- 

 borum grandinisque jactu tumultuosa regio, quaa aeque per 

 diem et per noctes riget, solis nubila et tristi luce fere nun- 

 quam calefacta. Habitantur in hac ipsa altitudine sat magnae 

 civitates, ut Micuipampa Peruvianorum, ubi thermometrum 

 centes. meridie inter 5 et 8, noctu 0.4 consistere vidi; 

 Huancavelica, propter cinnabaris venas celebrata, ubi altitu- 

 dine 1835 hexap. fere totum per annum temperies mensis 

 Martii Parisiis." 



(14) p. 6 " The Cordilleras of Oochabantba and the Brazilian 

 mountains approximate to one another by means of separate 

 transverse chains." 



The immense space between the eastern coasts of South 

 America and the eastern declivity of the chain of the Andes is 

 contracted by two mountain masses, which partially separate 

 from one another the three valleys or plains of the Lower 

 Orinoco, the Amazon, and the Rio de la Plata. The more 

 northern mountain mass, called the group of the Parime, is 

 opposite to the Andes of Cundinamarca, which, after extending 

 far towards the east, assume the form of one elevated mountain, 

 between the parallels of 66 and 68 west longitude. It is 

 connected by the narrow mountain ridge of Pacaraima with 

 the granitic hills of French Guiana, as I have clearly indi- 

 cated in the map of Columbia which I drew up from my own 

 * Humboldt et Bonpland, Planted ccquinoctiales, fasc. it 



