810 HIGHEST SUMMITS. 



the central chain (that of Quindiu) presents ita snowy 

 summits, no peak of the eastern chain (that of La Sum a 

 Paz) rises, in the same parallels, to the limit of perpetua) 

 enow. Between latitude, 2 and 5| neither the Paramos 

 situated on the east of Gigante and Neiva, nor the tops of 

 La Suma Paz, Chingasa, Guachaneque, and Zoraca, exceed 

 the height of 1900 to 2000 toises ; while on the north of 

 the parallel of Paramo d'Erve (lat. 5 5'), the last of the 

 Nevados of the central Cordillera, we discover in the eastern 

 chain the snowy summits of Chita (lat. 5 50'), and of 

 Mucuchies (lat. 8 12'). Hence it results, that from lati- 

 tude 5, the only mountains covered with snow during the 

 whole year, are the Cordilleras of the east ; and although 

 the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta is not, properly speaking, 

 a continuation of the Nevados of Chita and Mucuchies (west 

 of Patute and east of Merida), it is at least very near their 

 meridian. 



Having now arrived at the northern extremity of the 

 Cordilleras, comprehended between Cape Horn and the 

 isthmus of Panama, we shall proceed to notice the loftiest 

 summits of the three chains which separate in the knot of 

 the mountains of Socoboni, and the ridge of Boble (lat. 

 1 50' 2 20'). I begin with the most eastern chain, that 

 of Timana and Suma Paz, which divides the tributary streams 

 of the Magdalena and the Meta : it runs by the Paramos de 

 Chingasu, Guachaneque, Zoraca, Toquillo (near Labranza 

 Grande), Chita, Almorsadero, Laura, Cacota, Zumbador, and 

 Porqueras, in the direction of the Sierra Nevada de Merida. 

 These Paramos indicate ten partial risings of the back of 

 the Cordilleras. The declivity of the eastern chain is ex- 

 tremely rapid on the eastern side, where it bounds the basin 

 of the Meta and the Orinoco ; it is widened on the west by 

 the spurs on which are situated the towns of Santa Fe de 

 Bogota, Tunja, Sogamoso, and Leiva. They are like table- 

 lands fixed to the western declivity, and are from 1300 to 

 1400 toises high ; that of Bogota (the bottom of an ancient 

 lake) contains fossil bones of the mastodon, in the plain 

 called (from them) the Campo de Gigantes, near Suacha. 



The intermediary, or central chain, runs east of Popayan, 

 by the high plains of Mabasa, the Paramos of Guanacas, 

 Huila, Savelillo, Iraca., Baraguan, Tolima, Euiz,andHerveo, 



