ÏOPOGEAPHY OF COLOMBIA. 189 



two towns of Hioiipgro and MariniUa, which are familiar names in the revolu- 

 tionary annals of the country, and which give their names to the two hostile 

 factions of the Rionegreros ("Reds," or "Liberals"), and Marinillos ("Blues," 

 " Godos," or " Conservatives "). 



Puerto Berrio — Tunja — Boyaca. 



Puerto Berrio, on the left bank of the Magdalena below Nare, dates only from 

 the year 1875, when this site was chosen as the most convenient terminus for the 

 future railway which is to ascend from the river to Medellin, and thence ramify 

 over the Antioquian plateau. The first section, traversing the low-lying malarious 

 riverine district, has already been completed for a distance of 30 miles, at an alti- 

 tude of 2,620 feet, in the mineral territory watered by the Nus affluent of the Nare, 

 whence the line will be continued over the Quiebia Pass (6,560 feet) north-west- 

 wards to the Porce valley, and thence southwards to Medellin. 



The San Bartolome, which joins the left bank of the Magdalena 16 miles below 

 Puerto Berrio, is scarcely utilised for navigation, and contains no large centres of 

 population in its basin, although its farthest headwaters take their rise in auri- 

 ferous districts. Farther down the Magdalena receives, on its right bank, the 

 Carare, which also traverses an almost uninhabited region, although its valley 

 presents the shortest of all the projected routes between Bogota and the capital. 

 The Minero (upper Carare) waters a hilly country abounding in minerals and 

 precious stones. Here lies the village of Muso, formerly a large and flourishing 

 city, which yields the finest emeralds in the world. The open quarry where the 

 stones are found has been worked with various success since the year 1558, that 

 is, after the destruction of the Muso Indians, who had ruined the first Spanish 

 settlement of Tudeln, and who, after a struggle of twenty years, were at last 

 exterminated by the aid of dogs trained to hunt down the natives. At present the 

 Government, which owns the mines, farms them to a French syndicate for a yearly 

 sum of £2,250; the net profits of the speculators, although subject to the whims of 

 fashion, are estimated to average about £10,000 a year. The mode of working is 

 by open trenches, the debris being washed down the river by water collected in a 

 reservoir built above the level of the mine. About 300 natives are employed at 

 the mines, which lie some 80 miles north by west of Bogota, in a wild country 

 with almost impassable roads. The rough stones are inostly sent to Paris to be cut 

 and mounted.* 



Some 40 miles below the Carare the Magdalena is joined on the same side by 

 the Rio Opon, whose valley was followed in 1536 by Jimenez de Quesada on his 

 expedition to the conquest of the Muysca plateau. Before that event the Muys- 

 cans forwarded their cotton fabrics and the produce of their salt-springs by the 

 Opon, but now all traffic has ceased, despite the opening of a new road from Zapa- 

 toca to Barranca Bermeja (" Red Ravine "), on the Magdalena. 



Tunja, on the site of Ilunsa, former residence of the king of the northern 



* Report of the British Minister at Bogota, 1892. 



