278 COSMOS, 



tion of near raountain chains (South America, Alleghanys, 

 Norway, Apennines), it appears difficult to come to any de- 

 cision. 



Neveda de Baraguan (lat. 4° 11'), La Montana de Quindio, the snow- 

 capped, truncated cone of Tolima, the Volcano and Paramo de^Ruiz, 

 and the Mesa de Herveo. These high and rugged mountain deserts, to 

 which the name of Paramos is applied in Spanish, are distinguished 

 by their temperature and a peculiar character of vegetation, and rise 

 in the part of the tropical region which I here describe, accoi-ding to 

 the mean of many of my measurements, from 10,000 to 11,700 feet 

 above the level of the sea. In the parallel of Mariquita, of the Herveo 

 and the Salto de San Antonio, in the valley of the Cauca, there com- 

 mences a union of the western and central chains, of which mention 

 has already been made. This amalgamation becomes most remarkable 

 between the above-mentioned Salto and the Angostura and Cascada 

 de Caramanta, near Supia, Here is situated the high land of the prov- 

 ince of Antioquia, so difficult of access, which extends, according to 

 Manuel Restrepo, from 5i° to 8° 31'; in this we may mention, as 

 points of elevation from south to north, Anna, Sonson, to the north of 

 the sources of the Rio Samana, Marinilla, Rio Negro (6844: feet), and 

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

 de Osos. Farther on, between Cazeres and Zaragoza, toward the con- 

 fluence of the Cauca and Nechi, the true mountain chain disappears, 

 and the eastern slope of the Cerros de San Lucar, which I saw from 

 Badillas (lat. 8° 1') and Paturia (lat. 7° 36')> during my navigation 

 and survey of the Magdalena, is only perceptible from its contrast 

 with the broad river plain. 



The eastern Cordillera possesses a geological interest, inasmuch as it 

 not only separates the whole northern mountain system of New Gran- 

 ada from the low land, from which the waters flow partly by the Ca- 

 guan and Caqueta to the Amazons, and partly by the Guaviare, Meta, 

 and Apure to the Orinoco, but also unites itself most distinctly with 

 the littoral chain of Caraccas. What is called in systems of veins a 

 ralcing takes place there — a union of mountain chains which have been 

 elevated upon two fissures of very different directions, and probably 

 even at very different times. The eastern Cordillera departs far more 

 than the two others, from a meridional direction, diverging toward 

 the northeast, so that at the snowy mountains of Merida (lat. 8° 10') it 

 already lies five degrees of longitude farther to the east than at its issue 

 from the mountain group de Los Robles, near the Ceja and Timana. 

 To the north of the Paramo de la Suma Paz, to the east of the Purifi- 

 cacion, on the western declivity of the Paramo of Chingaza, at an alti- 

 tude of only 8760 feet, rises, over an oak forest, the fine, but treeless and 

 stern plateau of Bogota (lat. 4° 36'). It occupies about 288 geograph- 

 ical square miles, and its position presents a remarka-ble similarity to 

 that of the basin of Cashmere, which, however, according to Victor 

 Jacquemont, is about 3410 feet lower at the Wuller Lake, and belongs 

 to the southwestern declivity of the Hymalayan chain. The plateau 

 of Bogota and the Paramo de Chingaza are followed in the eastern 

 Cordillera of the Andes, toward the northeast, by 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 Almorzadera (12,854 feet), near Socorro; of Cacota 



