CHAIN ON TEKIlZrELA. 
327 
meridians of the capes of San Diego and San Aupstin. 
The culminant points, called El Picacho and Horqueta, are 
near the western border of the group; they are entirely 
separated from the peak of San Lorenzo, also covered with 
eternal snow, but only four leagues dista-iit from the port of 
Santa Marta, towards the S.E. I saw this latter peak from 
the heights that surrounded the village of Turbaco, soutli 
of Carthagena. No precise measurement has hitherto 
given us the height of the Sierra Nevada, which Dampier 
affirms to be one of the highest mountains of the northern 
hemisphere. Calculations founded on the maximum ot dis- 
tance at which the group is discerned at sea, give a height 
of more than 3001 toises. That the group ot the mountains 
of Santa hlarta is insulated is proved by the hot climate ot 
the lands (tierras calieiites) that surround it. Low ridges 
and a succession of hills indicate, perhaps, an ancient connec- 
tion between the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta on one 
side by the Alto de las Minas, with the phonolitic and 
granitic rocks of the Pehon and Banca,and on t he other, by 
the Sierra de Perija, with the mountains of Chilignana and 
Ocana, which are the spui-s of the eastern chain ot the 
Andes of New Grenada. In this latter chain, the febrituge 
species of cinchona (corollis hirsutis, staminibus inclusis) 
are found in the Sierra Nevada de Merida ; but the real 
cinchona, the most northern of South America, is found in 
the temperate region of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. 
III. Ltttohai. Chain on Venezhela.— This is the 
system of mountains the configuration and of 
which have excited so powerful an influence on the cultwa- 
tion and commerce of tl.e aiuient Camtania Ve- 
nezuela. It bears ditterent names, as the mountains ot Coro, 
of Caracas, of the Bcrgautin, ot Barcelona, ot ^ 
of Paria ; but all these names belong to the same chain, of 
which the northern part runs along the coast pi 
bean Sea. This system of mountains, which is IbO leagues 
long,* is a prolongation of tlie_ eastern Cordillera ot the 
Andes of Cundiuamarca. There is an immediate connection 
* It is more than double the length of the Pyrenees, from Cape Creui 
to the point ot' Figuera. 
