TOPOGRAPHIC TERMS OF SPANISH AMERICA 
293 
known to us as mountains and hills, are preserved in the carto- 
graphic literature of Spanish America: 
Eminencia, 
Picacho, 
Tinaja, 
Montana, 
Pena, 
Sandia, 
Cerro, 
Candela, 
Pelado, 
Cerrillo, 
Pelon, 
Pico, 
Loma, 
Peloncilla, 
Cumbre, 
Lomita, 
Teta, 
Cuchilla, 
Cordillera, 
Tejon, 
Chiquito. 
Sierra, 
Huerfano, 
Eminencia. — A generic term for any kind of mountainous or hilly pro- 
tuberance. 
Montana. — A generic term for mountain, exactly synonymous with the 
English word mountain as used in distinction from hill. 
Cerro. — A single eminence, somewhat intermediate between our con- 
ceptions of hill and mountain. It is an eminence of too great an altitude 
to be called a hill, but yet too low to be called a mountain. 
Cerrillo. — The diminutive of cerro ; printed cerrito on many maps. 
Loma. — A hill ; a rising ground in the midst of a plain. 
Lomita. — A small loma. 
Certain terms applied to mountains convey an idea of their 
arrangement : 
Cordillera. — This term is used in a collective sense for a mass of moun- 
tains as distinguished from single mountain summits. For illustration, 
the Rocky mountain region of the North American continent, or, as called 
by others, the cordilleran region, is divisible into a number of areas where 
the crests are numerous and compactly crowded. These areas are sepa- 
rated from one another by intervals of a less mountainous character. 
The areas of multiple masses are cordilleras. For instance, the eastern 
front of the Rocky mountain region is composed of the IMontaiia, Colo- 
rado, Guadalupe, and Mexican (eastern Sierra Madre) cordilleras. 
Sierra. — This name is u.sed in the singular for a mountain mass, range, 
or block of elongated outline, usually with a serrated crest. A group of 
sierras, such as any Mexican Sierra INladre, may constitute a cordillera. 
The following words are descriptive of the forms of single 
mountains or hills : 
Piritrho. — .\ peake«l or pointed eminence. 
J’ena (the end of the nii/.zen-mast).— A needle-like eminence. Exam- 
ples, I’ena Osciira, New Mexico; Pefia Colora<lo, Texas. 
CnndrluH (candles). — .V collection of pefia summits. Example, Sierra 
Candela, of the state of Coahnila, Mexiccj. 
J^i'lon. — A bare conical eminence, having the <nitline of a sugar loaf. 
J^eloncilla . — The diminutive of pelon. Examjile, Brackett sheet, Tt'xas. 
'J'eta . — A solitary, circular mountain having the form of a woman’s 
breast. The French word mnnuion is also used synonymously for tela in 
