Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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It Is The Thibet Of The
Equinoctial Regions Of The New World.
On the north of the town of Pasto (latitude 1 degree 13 minutes north;
longitude 79 degrees 41 minutes) the Andes again divide into two
branches and surround the table-land of Mamendoy and Almaguer.
The
eastern Cordillera contains the Sienega of Sebondoy (an alpine lake
which gives birth to the Putumayo), the sources of the Jupura or
Caqueta, and the Paramos of Aponte and Iscanse. The western
Cordillera, that of Mamacondy, called in the country Cordillera de la
Costa, on account of its proximity to the shore of the Pacific, is
broken by the great Rio de Patias, which receives the Guativa, the
Guachicon and the Quilquase. The table-land or intermediary basin has
great inequalities; it is partly filled by the Paramos of Pitatumba
and Paraguay, and the separation of the two chains appeared to me
indistinct as far as the parallel of Almaguer (latitude 1 degree 54
minutes; longitude 79 degrees 15 minutes). The general direction of
the Andes, from the extremity of the basin of the province of Quito to
the vicinity of Popayan, changes from north 8 degrees east to north 36
degrees east; and follows the direction of the coast of Esmeralda and
Barbacoas.
On the parallel of Almaguer, or rather a little north-east of that
town, the geological structure of the ground displays very remarkable
changes. The Cordillera, to which we have given the name of eastern,
that of the lake of Sebondoy, widens considerably between Pansitara
and Ceja. The knot of the Paramo de las Papas and of Socoboni gives
birth to the great rivers of Cauca and Magdalena, and is divided into
two chains, latitude 2 degrees 5 minutes east and west of La Plata,
Vieja and Timana. These two chains continue nearly parallel as far as
5 degrees of latitude, and they bound the longitudinal valley through
which winds the Rio Magdalena. We shall give the name of the eastern
Cordillera of New Grenada to that chain which stretches towards Santa
Fe de Bogota, and the Sierra Nevada de Merida, east of Magdalena; the
chain which lies between the Magdalena and the Cauca, in the direction
of Mariquita, we will call the central Cordillera of New Grenada; and
the chain which continues the Cordillera de la Costa from the basin of
Almaguer, and separates the bed of the Rio Cauca from the
platiniferous territory of Choco, we will designate the western
Cordillera of New Grenada. For additional clearness, we may also name
the chain, that of Suma Paz, after the colossal group of mountains on
the south of Santa Fe de Bogota, which empties the waters of its
eastern declivity into the Rio Meta. The second chain may bear the
name of the chain of Guanacas or Quindiu, after the two celebrated
passages of the Andes, on the road from Santa Fe de Bogota to Popayan.
The third chain may be called the chain of Choco, or of the shore.
Some leagues south of Popayan (latitude 2 degrees 21 minutes north),
west of Paramo de Palitara and the volcano of Purace, a ridge of
mica-slate runs from the knot of the mountains of Sacoboni to
north-west, and divides the waters between the Pacific and the
Caribbean Sea; they flow from the northern declivity into the Rio
Cauca, and from the southern declivity, into the Rio de Patias.
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