152 



SOUTH AMERICA -THE ANDES REGIONS. 



Fig. 57. — The Naee Goege. 

 Scale 1 : 75,000. 



are often arrested or delayed ; snags drift together and form obstructions, as on 

 the Mississippi or its Red River affluent, or else become embedded in the mud, a 

 constant danger to passing craft. In this section, which in many places expands 

 to a width of over a mile, the chief affluents are the Carare, the Opon, and the 

 copious Sogamoso. 



Next to the Cauca the Sogamoso is the largest tributary, and derives special 



importance from the region which it tra- 

 verses, one of the most densely peopled, 

 industrious, and historically interesting in 

 Colombia. It is formed by the junction of 

 two main branches, the Chicamocha, which 

 has the longest course, and the Saravita, 

 which is the most copious. On the banks 

 of the Chicamocha, which is regarded as 

 the mainstream, is situated the city of 

 Sogamoso, which gives its name to the 

 whole system. 



Rising in an upland valley of the Eastern 

 Cordillera, not far from the escarpments 

 facing the llanos, the Chicamocha flows 

 parallel with this outer Andean range as 

 far as the lofty Cocui heights. Here it 

 trends round to the north-west, forcing its 

 way through the successive Andean chains 

 in stupendous gorges hundreds of yards 

 deep. In the Sube defile the bed of the 

 river is contracted to 70 feet in width, with 

 a volume of 6,400 cubic feet per second, 

 rushing between rocky walls 2,730 feet 

 high. 



The Saravita or Suarez, rising midway 

 between the Eastern Cordillera and the 

 Magdalena, has a still more savage aspect 

 than the Chicamocha, for it has to descend 

 from the same altitude in a course less than 

 half as long. After traversing the marshy 

 plateaux and the vast Lake of Fuquene, 

 which looks like a permanent inundation, 

 the Saravita makes a sudden plunge of 70 

 feet, and then in the space of 3 miles descends 2,300 feet in a narrow gorge, 

 where it disappears altogether for a distance of over 200 yards. Other gorges, 

 cascades, and rapids follow in quick succession, while every lateral torrent has its 

 narrows, its caûons, cataracts, chasms, and underground channels. 



Below the junction of the two main branches the Sogamoso, here flowing 



li Mile. 



