294 COSMOS. 



continents and the direction of near mountain chains (South 

 America, Alleghanys, Norway, Apennines), it appears diffi- 

 cult to come to any decision. 



extent, directed nearly from south to north, like the western chain, 

 commences about 35 miles to the north-east of Popayau with the 

 Paramos of Guanacos, Huila, Iraca, and Chinche. Further on towards 

 the north, between Buga and Chaparral, rise the elongated ridge of the 

 Nevado de Baraguan (lat. 4 II 7 ), la Montana de Quindio, the snow- 

 capped, truncated cone of Tolima, the Volcano and Paramo de Ruiz 

 and the Mesa de Herveo. These high and rugged mountain deserts, to 

 which the name of Paramos is applied in Spanish, are distinguished by 

 their temperature and a peculiar character of vegetation, and rise in the 

 part of the tropical region which I here describe, according to the mean 

 of many of my measurements, from 10,000 to 11,700 feet above the 

 \evel of the sea. In the parallel of Mariquita, of the Herveo and the 

 Salto de San Antonio, in the valley of the Cauca, there commences a 

 union of the western and central chains, of which mention has already 

 been made. This amalgamation becomes most remarkable between 

 the above-mentioned Salto and the Angostura and Cascada de Cara- 

 manta, near Supia. Here is situated the high land of the province of 

 Antioquia, so difficult of access, which extends, according to Manuel 

 Restrepo, from 5^ to 8 34' ; in this we may mention as points of 

 elevation from south to north : Arrna, Sonson, to the north of the 

 sources of the Rio Saiaana : Marinilla, Rio Negro (6844 feet), and 

 Medellin (4847 feet), the plateau of Santa Rosa (8466 feet) and Valle de 

 Osos. Further on, beyond Cazeres and Zaragoza, towards the conflu- 

 ence of the Cauca and iSechi, the true mountain chain disappears, and 

 the eastern slope of the Cerros de San Lucar, which I saw from Badillas 

 (lat. 8 I'), and Paturia (lat. 7 36'), during my navigation and survey of 

 the Magdalena, is only perceptible from its contrast with the broad 

 river-plain. 



The eastern Cordillera possesses a geological interest in as much as it 

 riot only separates the whole northern mountain system of New Granada 

 from the lowland, from which the waters flow partly by the Caguan 

 and Caqueta to the Amazons, and partly by the Guaviare, Meta, and 

 Apure to the Orinoco, but also unites itself most distinctly with the 

 littoral chain of Caraccas. What is called in systems of veins a raking 

 takes place there, a union of mountain chains which have been ele- 

 vated upon two fissures of very different directions, and probably even 

 at very different times. The eastern Cordillera departs far more than 

 the two others from a meridional direction, diverging towards the 

 noi'th-east, so that at the snowy mountains of Merida (lat. 8 10') ife 

 already lies 5 degrees of longitude further to the east, than at its issue 

 from the mountain group de los Robles, near the Ceja and Timana. To 

 the north of the Paramo de la Suma Paz, to the east of the Purificacion, 

 on the western declivity of the Paramo of Chingaza, at an altitude of 

 only 8760 feet, rises, over an oak forest, the fine but treeless and stern 

 plateau of Bogota (lat. 4 36'). It occupies about 288 geog. square miles 

 and its position presents a remarkable similarity to that of the basin 



