312 BOUGUER S VOYAGE TO PERU. 



bafe, and on the outfide of the great Cordelier, appear to me to have a ditFerent origin 

 from thofe I had before feen. The beds of different foils, and oftener the rocks, of 

 which they were formed, were not, as were the others, of various inclinations ; they 

 were perfectly horizontal ; and fometimes I noticed them to correfpond with others, in 

 very remote mountains. The moft part of thefe are two or three hundred toifes high, and 

 are almoft all of them inacceflible ; they are frequently cut like walls, which gives one 

 an opportunity of better examining their horizontal beds, of which they fliow the ex- 

 tremities. The fpedacle is not beautiful, but it is rare and fmgular. When chance has 

 formed them round, and abfolutely detached them from others, each of their beds takes 

 the form of a very flat cylinder, or truncated cone, of but little height ; and thefe dif- 

 ferent beds lying one upon another, and diftinguifhed by their colours and their various 

 floping outlines, have frequently given to all a form of artificial workmanfhip, executed 

 with the greateil jullnefs. One of thefe fort of mountains ftands about a league from 

 Honda, upon the bank of the Guali, on the road to Mariquita, which is in view of 

 every traveller ; but were I to give a defcription of it, I fhould firft requeft all the 

 credit due to a relater who has no intereft in departing from the truth, and has his 

 whole life held an untruth in the greatefl abhorrence. The mountains in thefe coun- 

 tries are feen continually to take the appearance of ancient and fumptuous edifices, 

 chapels, domes, caftles ; fometimes fortifications with lengthened curtains provided with 

 baftions. It is difficult, in noticing thefe objects, and the correfpondent nature of their 

 beds, to doubt that the earth around is . not much funk. It appears thofe mountains, 

 whofe bafes were more folidly fupported, are left as a fpecies of teftimony, or as mo- 

 numents, which indicate the height of the ancient foil. 



I am not acquainted with the environs of Orinoko, but from report ; but I know- 

 that, in many places there, the mountains are formed with horizontal beds, and that 

 their fummits are perfedly level platforms. There is nothing, I believe, found fimilar 

 to this in Peru, notwithflanding the almoft infinite variety there fpread around. All 

 the beds incline around every fummit, conforming themfelves to the declivity of the 

 Kills. If, as there is an appearance, this portion of the furface of the earth is funk 

 from one part to the other of the chain of mountains which, parting fouth of Popayan, 

 feparate the river Magdalene from the Orinoko, the. fubmerfion of the Atlantide, of 

 which Plato has fpoken, will become much more plaufible. Our imagination revolts, 

 when we would reprefent to ourfelves fuch great alterations made in the exterior form 

 of our globe, the actual ftate of which appears fo permanent ; but we are not at liberty, 

 in this regard, entirely to conjecture of moft remote times from the prefent. Great 

 changes have their bounds : they are always fucceeded by a ftate of equilibrium or rela- 

 tive repofe, to which they lead, and which muft have a certain duration. 



The road is even from Plata to Honda, and is.xroiTed by many fmall rivers which run 

 into the Magdalene ; which river receives alfo other fmall ones on the oppofite fide, and 

 principally the Bogota, which paffes by Santa-Fe, and joins the Magdalene over againft 

 Ibague, whofe fituation I have already defcribed. The Bogota is very confiderable, 

 even at Santa-Fe. A higher cataratt is not to be found in the world, than is formed 

 by it at fifteen or fixteen leagues below this town, and about eight leagues from the 

 Magdalene, at a place called Tequendama, being fuppofed to be about two hundred 

 fathoms in height.* 



* The remainder is omitted, as the topics are better illuliratedin the following voyage. 



