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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The Western Mass Of The Knot Of The Mountains Of
Antioquia, Between The Cauca And The Atrato, Gives Rise, On Its
Western Descent, To The Rio San Juan, Bevara, And Murri.
It attains
its greatest height in the Alto del Viento, north of Urrao, known to
the first conquistadores by the name of the Cordilleras of Abide or
Dabeida.
This height (latitude 7 degrees 15 minutes) does not,
however, exceed 1500 toises. Following the western slope of this
system of mountains of Antioquia, we find that the point of partition
of the waters that flow towards the Pacific and the Caribbean Sea
(latitude 5 1/2 and 6 degrees ) nearly corresponds with the parallel
of the isthmus of Raspadura, between the Rio San Juan and the Atrato.
It is remarkable that in this group, more than 30 leagues broad,
without sharp summits, between latitude 5 1/4 and 7 degrees, the
highest masses rise towards the west; while, further south, before the
union of the two chains of Quindiu and Choco, we saw them on the east
of Cauca.
The ramifications of the knot of Antioquia, on the north of the
parallel 7 degrees, are very imperfectly known; it is observed only
that their lowering is in general more rapid and complete towards the
north-west, in the direction of the ancient province of Biruquete and
Darien, than towards the north and north-east, on the side of Zaragoza
and Simiti. From the northern bank of the Rio Nare, near its
confluence with the Samana, a spur stretches out, known by the name of
La Simitarra, and the Mountains of San Lucar. We may call it the first
branch of the group of Antioquia. I saw it, in going up the Rio
Magdalena, on the west, from the Regidor and the mouth of the Rio
Simiti, as far as San Bartolome (on the south of the mouth of the Rio
Sogamozo); while, eastward, in latitude 7 3/4 and 8 1/4 degrees, the
spur of the mountains of Ocana appear in the distance; they are
inhabited by some tribes of Molitone Indians. The second branch of the
group of Antioquia (west of Samitarra) commences at the mountains of
Santa Rosa, stretches out between Zaragoza and Caceres, and terminates
abruptly at the confluence of the Rio Nechi (latitude 8 degrees 33
minutes): at least if the hills, often conical, between the mouth of
the Rio Sinu and the small town of Tolu, or even the calcareous
heights of Turbaco and Popa, near Carthagena, may not be regarded as
the most northern prolongation of this second branch. A third advances
towards the gulf of Uraba or Darien, between the Rio San Jorge and the
Atrato. It is linked southward with the Alto del Viento, or Sierra de
Abide, and is rapidly lost, advancing as far as the parallel of 8
degrees. Finally, the fourth branch of the Andes of Antioquia,
situated westward of Zitara and the Rio Atrato, undergoes, long before
it enters the isthmus of Panama, such a depression, that between the
Gulf of Cupica and the embarcadero of the Rio Naipipi, we find only a
plain across which M. Gogueneche has projected a canal for the
junction of the two seas.
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