TKUE VOLCANOES. 295 



Although, in the series of volcanoes of Bolivia and Chili, 

 the western branch of the chain of the Ancles, which 

 approaches nearest to the Pacific, at present exhibits the 

 greater part of the traces of still existing volcanic activity, 

 yet, a very experienced observer, Pentland, has discovered, 

 at the foot of the eastern chain, more than 180 geog. miles 

 from the sea-coast, a perfectly preserved, but extinct crater, 

 with unmistakeable lava-streams. This is situated upon the 

 summit of a conical mountain, near San Pedro de Cacha, in 



of Cashmere, which, however, according to Victor Jacquemont, is 

 about 3410 feet lower at the Wuller lake, and belongs to the south- 

 western declivity of the Himalayan chain. The plateau of Bogota and 

 the Paramo de Chingaza, are followed in the eastern Cordillera of the 

 Andes towards the north-east by the Paramos of Guachaneque, above 

 Tunja; of Zoraca, above Sogamoso; of Chita (16,000 feet?), near the 

 sources of the Eio Casanare, a tributary of the Meta; of the Almorzadera 

 (12,854 feet), near Socorro; of Cacota (10,986 feet), near Pamplona; of 

 Laura and Porquera near la Grita. Here, between Pamplona, Salazar, 

 and Rosario (between lat. 7 8' and 7 50') is situated the small moun- 

 tain group, from which a crest extends from south to north towards 

 Ocnfia and Valle de Upar, to the west of the Laguna de Maracaibo, and 

 unites with the most advanced mountains of the Sierra Nevado de Santa 

 Marta (19,000 feet?). The more elevated and vaster crest continues in 

 the original north-easterly direction towards Merida, Truxillo, and Bar- 

 quisimeto, to unite there, to the eastward of the Laguna de Maracaibo, 

 with the granitic littoral chain of Venezuela, to the west of Puerto Cabello. 

 From the Grita and the Paramo de Porquera the eastern Cordillera 

 rises again at once to an extraordinary height. Between the parallels 

 of 8 5' and 9 7', follow the Sierra Nevada de Merida (Mucuchies) 

 examined by Boussingault and determined by Codazzi trigonometri- 

 cally at 15,069 feet; and the four Paramos de Timotes, Niquitao, Bocon6, 

 and de las Rosas, full of the most beautiful Alpine plants. (See 

 Codazzi, Resumen de la Geografia de Venezuela, 1841, pp. 12 and 495; 

 and also my Asie Centrale, t. iii, pp. 258 262, with regard to the 

 elevation of the perpetual snow in this zone.) The western Cordil- 

 lera is entirely wanting in volcanic activity, which is peculiar to the 

 central Cordillera as far as the Tolima and Paramo de Ruiz, which, how- 

 ever, are separated from the volcano of Puracfi by nearly three degrees 

 of latitude. The eastern Cordillera has a smoking hill near its eastern 

 declivity, at the origin of the Rio Fragua, to the north-east of Mocoa 

 and south-east of Timana, at a greater distance from the shore of the 

 Pacific, than any other still active volcano of the New World. An 

 accurate knowledge of the local relations of the volcanoes to the 

 arrangement of the mountain chains is of the highest importance for 

 the completion of the geology of volcanoes. All the older maps, 

 with the single exception of that of the high land of 'Quito, can only lead 

 to error. 



