212 SOUTH AMERICA— THE ANDES REGIONS. 



usually with the addition of a paneJa, or lump of sugar. In the temperate zone 

 maize takes the place of manioc, while wheat and potatoes prevail on the cold 

 uplands, and oca {oxalis tuberom) of a delicate flavour on the higher grounds, such 

 as the Pasto plateau, at altitudes of 1 0,000 feet and upwards. Certain species of 

 the solanuni {S. galeatum) j'ield fruit of a tine golden hue, preferred by the natives 

 to oranges. In Socorro and some other districts, oats, beans, and potatoes are 

 cultivated up to a height of 11,500 feet, and at this altitude the potato is exempt 

 from blight. 



Both in the temperate and hot zones, tillage, carried on only in the more 

 favoured localities, yields astonishing results, maize in many parts of the Cauca 

 valley as much as three-hundredfold. Most of the plants of the European tem- 

 perate lands are of late introduction, and it is curious to note that the peach, brought 

 with them by the first settlers, has become so far acclimatised that it never loses 

 all its foliage, whereas the pear, a more recent arrival, is still deciduous, as in 

 Europe. 



Although contributing little to the general trade of the world, Colombia has 

 begun to export various products of the land, such as the coffees of Santander and 

 Cucuta, and the tobaccos of Carmen, Ambalema, and the Cauca valley. Most of 

 the other exports, vegetable ivory, bark and gold, are natural produce. Stock- 

 breeding is more important in some districts, as in the savanna of Bogota, than 

 agriculture proper, and in this respect there has been a retrograde movement since 

 pre-Columbian times. According to certain rough estimates, the Colombian llanos 

 support relatively fifty times less cattle than those of Venezuela, but they were 

 far more productive before the herds of the natives had been plundered by the 

 whites. 



Pigs, introduced in 1536, have readily adapted themselves to their new environ- 

 ment, while undergoing slight modifications according to the different food and 

 climates. Most of them resemble the wâld boar with their pointed ears, broad 

 head and uniform colour, usually black. But in the hot valleys they have become 

 ruddy, like the young peccary, and on the bleak paramos, exceeding 8,000 feet in 

 altitude, they assume a thick coat, often somewhat curly, and in some cases with a 

 kind of woolly undergrowth. 



Analogous changes have affected the European sheep : thus in the torrid zone 

 the lamb still retains its wool ; but, unless shorn at the proper season, this wool 

 becomes matted and felt-like, at last dropping off in cakes, revealing an undercoat 

 of short glossy hair, like that of the goat. The goat itself has grown smaller, 

 but at the same time more graceful and nimble than its Sicilian congener. 



The natives have domesticated some of the wild animals, such as the miua, a 

 species of peccary, as faithful and intelligent as the dog, and the guacharaca, a 

 bird about the size of a fowl, but like a turkey in shape, which breeds freely with 

 Andalusian poultry. In their farm-yards is also seen the iguasa [chenalopex jubata), 

 which resembles the duck in appearance. Geese were unknown on the Bogota 

 plateau before the beginning of the pi-esent century. 



From the reports of the first settlers and the later researches of geologists, it 



