Civ NOTES. 



Antonio and the Angostura and Cascada de Caramanta near Supia. There 

 lies the highland and the difficultly accessible Province of Antioquia which, ac- 

 cording to Manuel Restrepo, extends from 5| to 8f N. lat., and in which, 

 still proceeding from south to north, we name successively : Arma, Sonson , 

 north of the sources of the Rio Samana ; Marinilla, Rio Negro (6842 feet), and 

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

 Osos. Beyond Cazeres and Zaragoza, towards the confluence of the Cauca and 

 the Nechi, the mountain-chain properly so called disappears ; and the eastern de- 

 clivity of the Cerros de San Lucar which, when navigating and surveying the 

 Magdalena River, I saw from Badillas, in 8 1' N., and Paturia, 7 36' N., is 

 only rendered sensible by the contrast with the broad plain of the river. 



The Eastern Cordillera offers the geographical interest not only of dividing the 

 whole northern mountain-system of New Granada from the lowlands, from which 

 the waters flow partly through the Caguan and Caqueta to the Amazons, and 

 partly through the Guaviare, Meta, and Apure to the Orinoco ; but also of being 

 decidedly connected with the coast-chain of Caracas. There is here a conjunc- 

 tion of mountain-ridges which have been elevated over two fissures of very dif- 

 ferent directions, and probably also at very different times. The eastern cor- 

 dillera departs much more than the other two from the direction of the meridian, 

 deviating so much towards N.E. that at the snow-covered mountains of Merida, 

 in 8 10' N. lat., it is already 5 more easterly than at the mountain-knot de los 

 Robles not far from the Ceja and Timana. North of the Paramo de la Suma 

 Paz, east of la Purificacion, on the western declivity of the Paramo of Chinzaga, 

 at a height of only 8760 feet, there rises above the oak forest the fine but tree- 

 less high plain of Bogota (lat. 4 36'). It extends over about eighteen (German) 

 geographical square miles, and its situation presents a striking similarity to that 

 of the basin of Kashmeer (which is however, according to Victor Jacquemont, 

 3410 feet lower, and belongs to the south-western declivity of the Himalayan 

 chain). Next to the plateau of Bogota and the Paramo de Chinzaga there follow 

 in the eastern cordillera of the Andes, towards the north-east, the Paramos of 

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

 near the sources of the Rio Casanare, a tributary of the Meta; of the Almorzadero 

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

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

 Rosario (between 7 8' and 7 50' N. lat.), is the small mountain-knot, from 

 whence a crest stretches northward towards Ocana and Valle de Upar, west 

 of the Laguna de Macaraibo, and unites with the advanced posts of the Sierra 

 Nevada de Santa Marta (19,000 feet ?). The higher and more considerable 

 crest continues to run in the previous N.E. direction towards Merida, Truxillo, 



