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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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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