483 



covered with eternal snows, but only four 

 leagues distant from the port of Santa Marta 

 towards the S. E. I saw this latter peak from 

 the heights that surrounded the village of Tur- 

 baco % south of Carthagena. No precise mea- 

 surement has hitherto ascertained the height 

 of the Sierra Nevada, which Dampierre affirms 

 to be one of the highest mountains of the north- 

 ern hemisphere. Combinations founded on the 

 maximum of distance at which the groupe is 

 discovered at sea, yield more than 3004 toises 

 of height *f\ This measure, notwithstanding 

 the uncertainty of terrestrial refraction, would 

 be less deficient if it had been made in the me- 

 ridian of Horqueta, and if the errors of ship 

 longitude did not render the distance to the 

 snowy summits uncertain. The direct proof 

 that the groupe of the mountains of Santa 

 Marta are insulated, is found in the ardent cli- 

 mate of the lands (tierras calientes) that sur*- 



* Peak of San Lorenzo, according to Fidalgo, lat 11° 6 7 

 45", long. 67° 50' Cad. Turbaco, according to my observa- 

 tions, lat. 10° 18' 5", long. 77° 41' 51" Par. (The meri- 

 dians of Cadiz and Paris differ 8 0 37' 37".) 



+ PombOy Noticias varias sobre las Quinas, 1824, p. 67 

 and 139. In this work, filled with useful knowledge, the la- 

 titude of the Peak of San Lorenzo is indicated at 10° 7' 15"' 

 instead of 11° 7' 15", an error so much the more dangerous, 

 as the Horqueta is there called la Sierra mas avanzada al 

 mar. 



2 k 2 



