226 THL CONVENT DE LA ru4?A. 



heaped-up earth prevents the salt water from covering the 

 whole plain, the emanations that rise during the heat of the 

 day, when the thermometer stands between 28 and 32 are 

 very pernicious to the health of the inhabitants. A small 

 portion of hilly land separates the town of Carthagena and 

 the islet of Manga from the Cienega de Tesoa. Those hills, 

 some of which are more than 500 feet high, command the 

 town. The Castillo de San Lazaro is seen from afar rising 

 like a great rocky pyramid ; when examined nearer its 

 fortifications are not very formidable. Layers of clay and 

 sand, belonging to the tertiary formation of nagelfluhe, are 

 covered with bricks, and furnish a kind of construction 

 which has little stability. The Cerro de Santa Maria de la 

 Popa, crowned by a convent and some batteries, rises above 

 tr.e fort of San Lazaro, and is worthy of more solid and 

 extensive works. The image of the Virgin, preserved in the 

 church of the convent, has been long revered by mariners. 

 The hill itself forms a prolonged ridge from west to east. 

 The calcareous rock, with cardites, meandrites, and petrified 

 corals, somewhat resembles the tertiary limestone of the 

 peninsala of Araya, near Cumana. It is split and decom- 

 posed in the steep parts of the rock, and the preservation of 

 the convent on so unsolid a foundation is considered by the 

 people as one of the miracles of the patron of the place. 

 Near the Cerro de la Popa there appears, on several points, 

 breccia with a limestone cement containing angular frag- 

 ments of Lydian stone. Whether this formation of nag el- 

 fluke is superposed on tertiary limestone of coral, and 

 whether the fragments of the Lydian stone come from 

 secondary limestone, analogous to that of Zacatecas and the 

 Moro de Nueva Barcelona, are questions which I have not 

 had leisure to investigate. The view from the Popa is ex- 

 tensive and varied, and the windings and rents of the coast 

 give it a peculiar character. I was assured that sometimes 

 from the windows of the convent, and even in the open sea, 

 before the fort of Boca Chica, the snowy tops of the Sierra 

 Nevada de Santa Marta are discernible. The distance of 

 the Horqueta to the Popa is seventy-eight nautical miles. 

 This group of colossal mountains is most frequently 

 wrapped in thick clouds : and it is most veiled at the season 

 when the gales blow with violence. Although only forty- 



