154 



SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES REGIONS. 



those on the Loba have become riverine ports, threatened, however, to be sub- 

 merged by the rising waters. 



The Cauca and Magdalena Delta. 

 The Cauca, the Rio de Santa Marta of the first settlers, rises in the same 

 uplands as the Magdalena, and follows a parallel valley with corresponding stages 

 on its course to the plains. Rushing in a rugged fissure between the Purace and 

 Sotara volcanoes, it descends a total vertical height of 8,20U feet in a course of 

 60 miles, thus reaching the bed of the old lake which stretched south and north 



Fig. 58. — Inland Delta of the Magdalena. 

 Scale 1 : l.BOO.OCH). 



jiincelejo l^ 



74'4-o,' 



74* WestoFGree 



44 Miles. 



between tbe Western and Central Cordilleras. Here its tranquil stream is 

 navigable for steamers, although these reaches possess little economic importance, 

 being suspended, so to say, above the lower plains and separated from them by a 

 long series of rapids and swirling waters. 



Below the town of Cartago the Cauca glides with great rapidity down a steep 

 incline, without, however, forming any falls, despite the misguiding expression, 

 Sa/to de Virginia, applied to the incline. Here begins the unnavigable section 

 which, in the space of 386 miles, has a total fall of 2,660 feet without a single 

 cascade, but with many rapids, eddies, foaming waters, reefs, and gorges. At 

 certain points the stream is narrowed to about 100 feet between sedimentary rocky 



