except in the case of the copper-ores of Coxheath, near Sydney. Here the Eastern Development Company have proved several large veins carrying copper in workable amounts to a depth of 300 feet. The ore is chalcopyrite with erubescite, and carries considerable amounts of gold and silver. Molybdenite also occurs in small disseminated grains and nodules at several points, and a few lots have been shipped to England.

In summing up these brief notes it may be said that the visitor to the province would place the minerals, irrespective of any development effected, in the following order: Coal, Iron, Gold. It is perhaps unusual to find these three so close together.

NOTES ON THE REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA, S. A.

BY JOHN C. F. RANDOLPH, E.M.

(Recently National Commissioner of Mines for the Department of Tolima.)

(Ottawa Meeting, October, 1889.)

NEW GRANADA, or, as it is known to its people, the Republic of Colombia, occupies the northwest corner of South America, and includes the Isthmus of Panama. Although it is one of our nearest neighbors, so little is known about it in the United States that the following notes regarding it, flowing from a year's professional residence, may be timely. It is bounded on the north by the Caribbean Sea and Costa Rica, on the east by Venezuela and Brazil, on the south by Brazil and Ecuador, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. Its extreme geographical limits are from 2° South latitude to 12° North latitude, and from 69° to 78° East longitude. In size, therefore, it is roughly 1000 miles from north to south, and 600 miles from east to west.

After many political convulsions and revolutions, and a somewhat checkered history, the country consists to-day of nine departments, Panama, Bolivar, Magdalena, Cauca, Santander, Antioquia, Tolima, Boyacá and Cundinamarca. These departments are governed from the national capital of Bogotá, although each has its own capital and departmental staff. The total population of the Republic is not more than 3,000,000 inhabitants, and these to a large extent consist of mixed races. Those who live in the hot belt are, as a

rule, indisposed to exertion and indolent, while those living in the mountains are more energetic. The inhabitants of Antioquia are esteemed the most enterprising race in the country. They are a mountain people, claiming direct descent from a colony of Moorish Jews which came early from Spain, and even when they emigrate to other states they always seek altitudes above 4000 feet in which to live. The Antioquians, as a rule, make the keenest politicians, the bravest soldiers and the shrewdest traders. The government is an unsettled one, subject to frequent revolts and revolutions. The governmental methods are usually arbitrary, the action of the courts is uncertain, the currency depreciated, and domestic and foreign credits precarious.

Topography.-The great chain of the Andes, entering Colombia from the south, splits up into three well-defined mountain ranges, known respectively as the Cordillera Oriental, the Cordillera Central, and the Cordillera Occidental. These ranges seldom, exceed 8000 feet in height, although they contain a number of snow-clad peaks like the Pic of Tolima and the Nevados of Huila, Herveo, Santa Ysabel and Santa Marta, all of which attain an altitude of at least 16,000 feet. A much greater altitude has been claimed for the Pic of Tolima, but no measurement has ever been made. The flanks of these ranges are extremely precipitous and rugged, and have been cut by the active forces of disintegration and erosion, into great ravines, cañons and gorges, separated by knife-edged cordons or ribs falling away from the main ranges. In probably no country in the world have the natural forces of rain and heat been such important factors in moulding the topography. There are no roads in the country, but only narrow bridle-paths. This extreme asperity of surface makes the country a most difficult one for mule transportation.

The valley of the Magdalena, between the Eastern and Central Cordilleras, contains the main water-way of the country, and the larger part of the population is found in the adjoining departments. In point of size and volume of water, the Magdalena River compares best with the Ohio River in North America. It is, however, similar to the Mississippi in its tendency to form new channels, and in forming a delta where it debouches into the sea. It rises in the mountains near the Equator, and flows north for 900 miles to the Caribbean Sea. For the lower 200 leagues of its tortuous course the river is navigable at all seasons as far south as Honda. A rapid divides the navigation of the lower river from that of the upper

river at Honda. From Honda to Purificacion, a distance of 95 miles, the upper river is navigable by smaller steamers, and still smaller ones are used in ascending from Purificacion to Neiva, a further distance of 60 miles. The fall from Neiva to Purificacion is 300 feet, from Purificacion to Honda 250 feet, and from Honda to the Caribbean Sea 650 feet. All the boats used are flat boats, with wheels at the stern. In the dry season the upper river is not navigable for lack of water and the lower river is so very shoal, that many accidents occur to the steamers. The second great valley of Colombia lies between the Central and Western Cordilleras, and contains the Cauca River, which is the principal affluent of the Magdalena.

Seasons.—The seasons of the Republic of Colombia consist of two rainy and two dry seasons each year. The former begin ordinarily with the equinoxes, and the latter with the solstices. The normal length of each season is three months, but on the coast the wet seasons are the longest, while far in the interior the dry seasons are frequently the longest. Abnormal years are not infrequent, in which a dry or a wet season may continue six or seven months without intermission. In the wet season, there occur only one or two short rains each day, in which an enormous amount of water falls, making the trails almost impassable and causing an exuberant vegetation.

Range of Temperature, etc.-The peculiar topography of Colombia, consisting of great mountain ranges alternating with broad river valleys, gives rise to a great diversity of temperature and of climate, not ordinarily considered possible for equatorial regions. The daily range of temperature depends solely on altitude. The belt of tropical temperatures includes the river valleys and all altitudes below 3000 feet. At 3000 feet is a perennial Italian climate of eternal June, when the range is 85° F. by day and 80° at night. At 4000 feet the day temperature is 75° and the night temperature 70°. At 5000 feet the temperature by day is 70° and 65° by night. Finally, at 8300 feet, the altitude of Bogotá, the day and night temperatures are respectively 60° and 50°. These ranges of temperature due to altitude are perennial, and independent of the seasons, and if the altitude of any given locality in the Republic is known, its climate can be inferred with unerring exactness. The true equator of temperature passes through Barranquilla and Colon, although they are 10° north of the geographical equator. The following list shows the observed altitudes and daily ranges of temperature in the principal towns of Colombia:

Because of this great diversity of climate the country is far more healthful than most equatorial regions.

Yellow fever always exists on the coast and is occasionally epidemic there, but in the interior of the country only occasional sporadic cases occur at altitudes below 1500 feet. Bilious and intermittent fevers, dysenteries and diarrhoeas are, however, prevalent, due to improper food and exposure.

The soil of Colombia is fertile and produces dye-stuffs, gums, sugar, tobacco, quinine bark, india-rubber, coffee, chocolate, and cereals. Only human industry and cheap transportation are lacking. The soil is so rich that the same land will yield three crops in one year to very slight labor, but this labor is seldom applied. Infant railroads have been begun in several places, but lack money both for construction and maintenance. Only one of them is as long as thirty miles.

Geology. The geology of Colombia is simple and in many respects similar to that on the western side of our own continent; while only the geology of the central departments of Tolima and Cundinamarca can be stated from personal experience, there are good reasons for believing that the same geological features extend both northward and westward. The department of Tolima lies mainly on the west side of the Magdalena, on the eastern slopes of the Central Cordillera, and on the east side of the river the department of Cundinamarca rises upward into the Eastern Cordillera. The valley of the Magdalena is a synclinal valley and the country rises rapidly away from the river on both sides. On the Tolima side broad llanos of alluvion are first traversed which are cut through by foothills of red Triassic sandstone, which present abrupt broken cliffs to the west,

and gentle slopes to the east. At a height between 4000 and 5000 feet above the sea, a broad zone of Archæan schist is encountered, consisting at various points of micaceous, chloritic, talcose, hornblendic or siliceous varieties. These schists all coincide in strike with that of the range and dip to the east. They are the oldest rocks known in Tolima, and are probably of Laurentian or Huronian age. They have been exposed by the breaking of the overlying Triassic formation at the time of the upheaval of the central range, and are cut through continually by dikes of andesite and other eruptive rocks.

This belt is found as far west as the flanks of the Paramo of Ruiz at 6000 feet altitude, and although exploration has never as yet been possible further west, evidence is not lacking that at many points among the higher peaks of the range, the eruptive rocks have broken through the schists, and form the backbone of the Cordillera. At some few points the Triassic sandstones are overlaid with thin patches of Jurassic limestone containing characteristic ammonite fossils. It is therefore probable that the elevation of the Central Cordillera took place either at the end of the Triassic or at the beginning of Jurassic time. This was evidently an age of great movement on both continents. Subsequently occurred the action of the great forces of erosion in the Quaternary, producing the alluvion, and gold-bearing gravels of Tolima. The eras presented, therefore, in the geological history of Tolima, are: Archæan, Jurassic, Triassic and Quaternary. The same geological features are attested by competent observers, as extending northward through the state of Antioquia and are found on the west of the range. In the southern part of Tolima the range subsides into well rounded hills, attaining a maximum altitude of 7000 to 8000 feet, and the Triassic sandstones are unfractured.

On the east side of the river, the Eastern Cordillera rises rapidly to Bogotá. The same geology is encountered, except that the Jurassic limestones are found of very great thickness overlying the Triassic sandstones. There is no evidence in Cundinamarca that in the upheaval of the Eastern Cordillera, the sedimentary rocks were fractured, but it is not impossible that in the northern states of Boyacá and Santander the schist formation may be encountered, due to such a cause. There is some evidence to show that the upheaval of the eastern range took place at the end of the Jurassic and slightly subsequent to that of the Central Cordillera.

In all the area described, which is equal to one-fourth of the Re

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