TOPOGRAPHY OF COLOMBIA. 185 



impracticable after heavy rains. So recently as 1889 the transport of a mule's 

 load weighing about 245 pounds, which usually costs £1 from Honda to 

 Bogota, came to £3, and took from ten to forty and even sixty days, according to 

 the weather. 



Hence railway schemes are now more in favour with the public, and three 

 lines have especially been proposed to put the capital of Colombia in communica- 

 tion with the rest of the world. One runs northward through Zipaquira, Chiquin- 

 quira, and Yelez to the middle Magdalena near the Sogamoso confluence ; a second 

 trends north-westwards along Poncet's original route towards the Rio Xegro con- 

 fluence ; while the third follows the course of the Funza, south-westwards to the 

 Magdalena at Girardot. The Zipaquira project was begun in 1892, the only other 

 line possessed by Bogota being a short section common to two future routes at 

 present terminating at Facatativa, on the edge of the plateau. 



This place was one of the old Muysca strongholds, and some of the surrounding 

 rocks are inscribed with characters analogous to those of Pandi. Before the open- 

 ing of the road and railway Facatativa was a mere group of huts ; now it is a 

 thriving station forming an advanced suburb of the capital, on the main route to 

 the Magdalena. 



ChIPAQUE UbALA CaBU YARO. 



Eastwards, Bogota is separated from the rapid but regular slope of the Orinoco 

 only by the relatively easy pass of the Paramo Choachi, which stands 10,400 feet 

 above the sea, but not more than 1,756 above Bogota itself, from which it is distant 

 about 15 miles. The terraces and upland valleys draining to the Orinoco are nearly 

 as densely peopled as the Magdalena slope. Here have sprung up several towns, 

 such as Chipaque, Caqucza, Ubaque, Choachi, Fomeque, and Quetama, on various 

 affluents of the Humadea, and farther north Junin, Gachcta, Ubala, and other large 

 centres of population in the upper Upia basin. But the population decreases in 

 the direction of the llanos, and San Martin, ViUavicencio, Medina, and the other 

 settlements founded on the verge of the plains are merely rural stations for fatten- 

 ing the cattle before being driven up to the Bogota plateau. 



These marvellously fertile lands have hitherto been little utilised, owing 

 partly to the prevalent fevers, partly to the difficult and even dangerous routes 

 leading from the llanos up to the central plateaux. During the past century there 

 has even been a considerable falling off in the number of the inhabitants, the 

 Indians having been reduced to less than one-third, and whole tribes, such as the 

 Achaguas and the Zeonas, having disappeared altogether. The very site of the 

 ruins of the old city of San Juan de los Lianas has been lost, and the present 

 stockbreeders own far fewer herds than were formerly bred about the missionary 

 stations. 



Nevertheless, symptoms of a revival are apparent in various districts, as at the 

 Mamhita and other salt-springs. Cacao and coffee plantations are also encroaching 

 on the scrub and woodlands, and in «1857 the little riverine port of Cahuyaro was 



