NATURAL BRIDGES — ANDES. 



279 



NatTiral 

 bridges of 

 Icononzo. 



other trees resembling those of the temperate regions of CHAP.xxiu 

 the northern hemisphere, he looks down upon a country 

 covered with palms, bananas, and sugar-canes. 



Leaving Santa Fe, in September 1801, the travellers 

 passed the natural bridges of Icononzo, formed by masses 

 of rock lying across a ravine of immense profundity. 

 The valleys of the cordilleras are generally crevices, the 

 depth of which is often so great, that were Vesuvius 

 seated in them its summit would not exceed that of the 

 nearest mountains. One of these, that, namely, of 

 Icononzo or Pandi, is peculiarly remarkable for the sin- 

 gular form of its rocks, the naked to23S of which present 

 the most picturesque contrast with the tufts of trees and 

 shrubs which cover the edges of the gulf. A torrent, Cascades. 

 named the Summa Paz, forms two beautiful cascades 

 where it enters the chasm, and where it again escapes 

 from it. A natural arch 47 ,j feet in length and 39 in 

 breadth, stretches across the fissure at a height of 318 

 feet above the stream. Sixty-four feet below this bridge 

 is a second, composed of three enormous masses of rock 

 which have fallen so as to support each other. In the 

 middle of it is a hole through which the bottom of the 

 cleft is seen. The torrent, viewed from this place, 

 seemed to flow through a dark cavern, whence arose a 

 doleful sound, emitted by the nocturnal birds that haunt 

 the abyss, thousands of which were seen flying over the 

 surface of the water, supposed by Humboldt from their 

 appearance to be goatsuckers. 



In the kingdom of New Grenada, from 2° 30' to 5° 15' Cordilleras 0/ 

 of north latitude, the cordillera of the Andes is divided the Andes. 

 into three parallel chains. The eastern one separates 

 the valley of the Rio Magdalena from the plains of the 

 Rio Meta, and on its western declivity are the natural 

 bridges of Icononzo above mentioned. The central chain, 

 which parts the waters between the basin of the Rio 

 Magdalena and that of the Rio Cauca, often attains the 

 limits of perpetual snow, and shoots far beyond it in the 

 colossal summits of Guanacas, Baragan, and Quindiu. 

 The western ridgo cuts off the valley of Cauca from the 



