310 
HIOHE3T SUMMITS. 
the central chain (that of Quindiu) presents its snowy 
summits, no peak of the eastern chain (that of La Suma 
Paz) rises, in the same parallels, to the limit of perpetual 
snow. Bctw'een latitude, 2° and 5 ^° neither the Paramos 
situated on the east of Gigante and Neiva, nor the tops of 
La Suma Paz, Chingasa, Guachaneque, and Zoraca, exceed 
the height of 1900 to 2000 toises ; while on the north of 
the parallel of Paramo d’Enre (lat. 5° 5'), the last of the 
Nevados of the central Cordillera, we discover in the eastern 
chain the snowy summits of Chita (lat. 5“ 50'), and of 
Mucuchies (lat. 8° 12'). Hence it results, that from lati- 
tude 5^, the only mountains covered with snow during the 
whole year, are the Cordilleras of the east ; and although 
the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta is not, properly speaking, 
a continuation of the Nevados of Chita and Mucuchies (west 
of Patute and east of Merida), it is at least very near their 
meridian. 
Having now arrived at the northern extremity of the 
Cordilleras, comprehended between Cape Horn "and the 
isthmus ot Panama, we shall proceed to notice the loftiest 
summits of the three chains w'hich separate in the knot of 
mountains of Socoboni, and the ridge of Eoble (lat. 
1 20*). I begin with the most eastern chain, that 
of Timana and Suma Paz, which divides the tributary streams 
of the Magdalena and the Meta : it runs by the Paramos de 
Chingasu, Guachaneque, Zoraca, Toquillo” (near Labranza 
Grande), Chita, Almorsadero, Laura, Cacota, Zuinbador, and 
PorqueiMs, in the direction of the Sierra Nevada de Merida. 
These Paramos indicate ton partial risings of the back of 
the Cordilleras. The declivity of the eastern chain is ex- 
tremely rapid on the eastern side, where it bounds the basin 
ot the Meta and the Orinoco ; it is widened on the west by 
the spurs on which are situated the towns of Santa Pe de 
Bogota, Tunja, Sogamoso, and Leiva. They are like table- 
lands tipd to the western declivity, and arc from 1300 to 
1400 toises high ; that ot Bogota (the bottom of an ancient 
lake) contains fossil bones of the mastodon, in the plain 
called (trom them) the Campo de Gigantes, near Suacha. 
The intermediary, or central chain, runs east of Popavan, 
W the high plains of Mabasa, the Paramos of Guanacas, 
Huila, SaveliUo, Iraca, Baragpian, Tolima, Euiz, andHerveo, 
