Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/180

C L M B 1 A are the Chagres, disemboguing in the Atlantic, and the Tuyra, the Chepa or Bayanos, and the Cluriqui, which find their way to the Pacific. Lakes. Many of the Colombian rivers take their rise in moun tain lakes, and several of them fill considerable basins in their course ; but throughout the country there are very few of those extensive sheets of water that form so usual a feature in most mountainous regions. The River Cesar flows through the lakes of Zipatosa and Adentro ; between the Cauca and the Nechi lies Lake Caceres, as well as several others of less importance ; the district of Tunja still pre serves the Lake of Tota ; and in BogotA is the famous Guatavita, where the Muiscas are reputed to have sunk their .treasures. Minerals. Colombia is distinctively a mineral country, and the list of its productions in this department includes gold, silver, platinum, copper, lead, iron, mercury, and antimony, limestone, potash, soda, magnesia, alum, and salt, coal and asphalt, emeralds, amethysts, and amber. Many of the most important deposits are as yet untouched, owing mainly to the defective state of internal communication, and even those that have been worked have proved much less remunerative from the same cause. Gold especially is very widely diffused ; it was freely used by the natives before the arrival of Europeans, and formed a valuable source of revenue to the Spanish Government, who employed thousands of negroes and Indians in the task of collection. It is principally obtained from alluvial deposits ; and in some districts there is hardly a stream that would not furnish its quota. Hydraulic appliances were introduced about 1870 in some of the workings ; and a more systematic treatment is being gradually adopted. Antioquia is the most important gold-producing state in the confederation ; the total value of gold and silver exported from the capital in 1875 was 2,403,241 dollars; there were upwards of eighty lode mines at work in 1875 ; and 15,000 men and women are employed in the mining. The silver frequently occurs in very rich lodes ; but, owing it would seem to various economical causes, many of the mining operations have been unsuccessful. The " Santa Anna " mines in Tolima, which were worked from 1826 to 1873 (for some years under the direction of Mr Robert Stephenson, the railway engineer), yielded during that period about 700,000 worth of ore, but ultimately proved a failure. The " Frias " silver mine, belonging to the Tolima Mining Company of London, yielded in 1875 300 tons of ore valued at 100 per ton. The emerald mines are remarkable as being the only known source of the genuine stone. They are situated at Muzo, in the state of Boyaca, in the Central Cordillera, to the north of Bogota. Soon afterthe Spanish Conquest they were worked on a large scale by the Government ; but towards the close of the 18th century it was found that it cost G500 pesos to extract 1000 pesos worth of emerald, and they were consequently abandoned (see Ezpeleto s report in Relac. de los Vireyes, p. 347). After the war of independ ence the mines were appropriated by the republic, from which a French company obtained a monopoly from 1864 to 1874. During this period the stones found a ready market in Paris, where green was the imperial colour. Since theexpiry of the contract the mines have been demono polized. The emeralds are found in two distinct layers of calcareous bitumen, the upper of which is black and friable, and the under compact. In the upper the emeralds occur in " nests," in the lower in veins, and usually in the neighbourhood of bands of fluor-spar. The finest stones may be worked up to a value of 20 a carat; the worst sorts are only worth about 5s. Coal is pretty generally distributed throughout the republic, and the great bed of Cali probably extends to the Pacific. Hock-salt is obtained in the table-lands of Bosot;i, Tunja, and Pamplona / and forms an important Government mono poly. Though Colombia is situated within the tropics, and, in Clim fact, as we have seen, is crossed by the equator in its southern limits, its great irregularity of surface and its extensive coast-lines develop a great variety of climatic conditions. A comparatively short journey transports the traveller from the sultry valley of the Magdalena, where the water grows tepid and the stones burning hot in the sun s rays, to the summits of a mountain where the snow lies cold from year to year. In the table-lands and valleys of the Eastern and Western Cordilleras, at a height of 800 to 9500 feet above the level of the sea, there are two dry seasons and two rainy, the former commencing at the solstices and the latter at the equinoxes, while in the lowlands both of the Pacific and the Atlantic seaboard there is only one dry and one rainy of six months each. In the Gulf of Darien and the Isthmus of PanamA there is no such distinction, and rain occurs in any part of the year, The greatest mean temperature in the country is about 86 Fahr., and the lowest in the inhabited parts of the Cordilleras is about 44. At Honda, which is about 1000 feet above sea-level, the daily range of the thermometer is only from 8 to 12, and the annual not more than 20. " The hottest place," says Mosquera, to whom we are largely indebted, " which I have found in New Granada, is the port of Ocaiia, where I have on several occasions seen the thermometer in the shade at 104 Fahr." In the llanos of the Orinoco the mean annual temperature is about 80 Fahr,, while in the forest district to the south the average is about 8 higher. In the latter the rain is distributed throughout the year, while in the former the seasons are distinctly marked, and from November till April the rains fall in torrents accompanied with dreadful thunderstorms. In keeping with this variety of climate the Colombian p] a n flora ranges from purely tropical forms in the lowlands up to purely Alp ine or boreal types in the mountains. The tree limit on Tolima, in the Central chain, is 10,360 feet. The country abounds with extensive forests, in which timber of gigantic proportions waits for the settler s axe. Besides several of the common species of palm trees which are found as high as 2500 feet above the sea, there are two remarkable species, the Ceroxylon andicola, Palm a de Cera, or Wax-palm, and the Oreodoxa regia, or Palmita del Azufral, which in company with the oak, frequently clothe the Cordilleras to a height of 6000 or 8000 feet. They are both of extreme beauty, and the former shoots up to about 180 or 200 feet. From the Sierra Nevada and other districts are obtained logwood, Brazil-wood, and fustic ; and the Myroxylon toluifera, from which the balsam of Tolu is collected, grows luxuriantly on the banks of the Rio Negro. Excellent Indian-rubber is obtained from the Castilloa elastica, a lofty and luxuriant tree, which occurs in considerable abundance in Panama, Cauca, and other states. The quantity and quality of the material might be greatly increased and improved, as the .collection is still in the hands of a very rude and careless class of men. Under the superintendence of Mr Cross the tree is being introduced into British India. Cinchona of six or seven different varieties is common throughout the country, the elevation most favourable for its growth being between 7800 and 9000 feet above the sea. Of other medicinal plants there may be mentioned the aloe, the sarsaparilla, the albataque, and the vine of the cross. The cotton plant grows wild in many parts and yields an excellent fibre : indigo is indigenous; and an almost endless variety of fruits are found throughout the country. The fauna is perhaps hardly so rich as the flora, but it Amr does not fall far behind. Of monkeys there are at least

seventeen distinct species ; the feline race i? represented