208 



SOUTH AMEEICA— THE ANDES EEGIONS. 



time, one of the unliealthiest regions in the world. In 1885, "White estimated 

 its entire population at about 40,000, of whom three-fourths were negroid half- 

 breeds and one-fourth whites, whose chief resources were gold, gums, rubber, 

 bark and other drugs collected in the forests. 



Qiiihdo, the chief place in this basin, lies on the right bank of the Atrato, 250 

 miles above its mouth, and below the Cuia confluence. The neighbouring hills 

 contain coal- and copper- mines, and at certain seasons prodigious shoals of fish 

 ascend the river, which has an average depth of 10 feet, and is navigable for 

 steamers to this point. 



A bad road, crossing the Western Cordillera at a height of 6,800 feet, connects 

 Quibdo with Bolivar, in the Cauca valley. But the stream of migration to these 



Fig. 82. — Poet of Buenaventtjea. 

 Scale 1 : 650,000. 



77°2Q- 



West oF G 



reenwicr 



Depths. 



to 5 

 Fathoms. 



6 to 25 

 Fathoms. 



25 Fathoms 

 and upwards. 



12 Miles. 



uplands sets chiefly from Antioquia, whose enterprising citizens have already 

 founded several settlements, such as Urrao, near the source of the Murri aflluent 

 of the Atrato ; Canasgordas and Frontino, about the headwaters of the Sucio, which 

 joins the Atrato above its delta. 



NoviTA — Buenaventura — El Oastigo. 



In the upper basin of the San Juan, whence comes much of the platinum used 

 in the world, the chief centre of population is Novita, which, like Quibdo, is built 

 on piles. On the neighbouring Pacific coastlands the only port visited by skippers 

 is Baudo, which lies on a tidal river of like name. 



