climate to a warm one. The mere difference of height, however, Humboldt remarks, is not sufficient to account for this difference of temperature. It takes three hours to descend to the ravine of La Povasa. "Although the river loses, in falling, a great part of its water, which is reduced to vapour, the rapidity of the lower current* obliges the spectator to keep at the distance of nearly 450 feet from the basin dug out by the fall. A few feeble rays of moon fall on the bottom of the crevice. The solitude of the place, the richness of the vegetation, and the dreadful roar that strikes upon the ear, contribute to render the foot of the cataract of Tequendama one of the wildest scenes that can be found in the cordilleras." The column of vapour, rising like a thick cloud, is seen from the walks round Bogota at five leagues' distance.

The fall is not, Humboldt says, as is commonly believed, the loftiest on the globe, but there scarcely exists a cataract which, from so great a height, precipitates an equal mass of waters. The combination of sublimely picturesque scenery which it presents is absolutely unrivalled; and the traveller is not surprised, that the rude tribes of the aborigines should have ascribed the whole to a miraculous origin. The following is the legend connected with the place.

"In the remotest times, before the Moon accompanied the Earth, according to the mythology of the Muysca or Mozca Indians, the inhabitants of the plain of Bogota lived like barbarians, naked, without agriculture, without any form of laws or worship.

*From the termination of the fall, the river assumes the names of Rio de la Mesa, Rio de Tocayma, and Rio del Colegio It has still a fall of nearly 6,900 feet before it reaches the Magdalena, which is about 450 feet in every league.

Suddenly there appeared among them an old man, who came from the plains situate on the east of the Cordillera of Chingasa, and who appeared to be of a race unlike that of the natives, having a long and bushy beard. He was known by three distinct appellations, Bochica, Nemquetheba, and Zuh. This old man, like Manco-Capac, instructed men how to clothe themselves, build huts, till the ground, and form themselves into communities. He brought with him a woman, to whom also tradition gives three names, Chia, Yubecaguaya, and Huythaca. This woman, extremely beautiful and not less malignant, thwarted every enterprise of her husband for the happiness of mankind. By her skill in magic, she swelled the River Funzha, and inundated the valley of Bogota. The greater part of the inhabitants perished in this deluge; a few only found refuge on the summits of the neighbouring mountains. The old man, in anger, drove the beautiful Huythaca far from the Earth, and she became the Moon, which began from that epoch to enlighten our planet during the night. Bochica, moved with compassion for those who were dispersed over the mountains, broke with his powerful arm the rocks that enclosed the valley on the side of Canoas and Tequendama. By this outlet, he drained the waters of the Lake of Bogota. He built towns, introduced the worship of the Sun, named two chiefs, between whom he divided the civil and ecclesiastical authority, and then withdrew himself, under the name of Idacanzas, into the holy valley of Iraca, near Tunja, where he lived in the exercise of the most austere penitence for the space of 2,000 years.

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In this Indian fable, there is a remarkable analogy to the traditions found among many nations of the

* Humboldt, Researches, vol. i. pp. 72-5.

Old Continent; and Bochica answers to the Quetzalcoatl of the Mexicans, the Mango-Capac of the Peruvians, and the Paye Zome of the Brazilian tribes.

LAKE OF GUATAVITA.

Another of the natural curiosities in this province is the Lake of Guatavita, situated in a wild and solitary spot on the ridge of the mountains of Zipaquira, and supposed to have been held in religious veneration by the Indians, who repaired thither for the purpose of ablution. In this lake, according to tradition, lie concealed immense treasures, which the natives are said to have thrown into it when Quesada appeared with his cavalry on the plain of Cundinamarca; and the draining of it has always been a favourite project. Señor Pépe Paris, who is at present the director of the draining, has expended large sums of money in the process. The Spaniards had once got within fourteen feet of the bottom, when the sides fell in with a tremendous crash; and the lagoon having springs in it, the waters began to rise. But, by examining the banks, and washing the mud and soil, they procured a sufficient sum to pay the Government a quinta of 170,000 dollars (a quinta is three per cent); and one emerald procured, and sent to Madrid, was alone valued at 70,000 dollars.

An old Spaniard, sounding in the centre, drew up with the lead a small branch of a tree, covered with mud, in which was found a golden image worth about 100 dollars. This is the image, we apprehend, which the author of Letters from Colombia saw at a gentleman's house at Bogota, and which had been recovered from the lake: "it was about three inches in height, and resembled the objects of Hindoo worship.'

"Having paddled round the shores of the lake," continues Capt Cochrane, "we landed, and commenced examining the works which were now going on, as a kind of tunnel. We found the strata to be chiefly slate and grey sand-stone; but saw no volcanic appearances. I at once perceived why the sides had fallen in. The slate strata lay in flakes, at about twenty degrees from the perpendicular, against the edges of which the water struck, and gradually carrying away piece by piece, undermined the sides, which consequently fell in. I pointed it out, and proposed planking the sides, in which Señor Rivero concurred; but we could not persuade our friend Pépe that this was requisite. The distance required to be cut, I found to be about forty yards, which might easily be done with proper care, and an expense of perhaps 2,000 dollars."*

On the edge of the conical summit in which the lagoon is situated, our traveller saw "two of the sepulchres of the caciques hewn in the sand-stone." Capt Cochrane subsequently visited "innumerable spots where the Indians used to bury their dead, and found," he says, "that the burial-places of the chiefs had been always chosen on commanding summits overlooking the plains, and that they were generally interred singly; whereas the lower class were buried in large caverns formed for that purpose some hundreds of feet below." He obtained permission to open a considerable number of these guacas or sepulchres, and he describes one which appears to have been made for a chief. "The spot was indicated by a small hollow appearance in the ground. After removing about a foot of turf and earth, we came to an amazingly large stone, about twelve feet long, eight feet wide, and

*Capt Cochrane succeeded, by opening the canal, in low ering the lake ten feet, but he did not stay to complete the undertaking.

nine inches thick; it was a kind of sand-stone; this we were obliged to break, and with great difficulty removed, when in two pieces. It had rested on a • shelf piece all round; the grave was formed in sandstone. We at first came to earth, and then to finely variegated sand, rammed down so hard, as to appear almost an integral part of the sand-stone, but manifestly different, as it crumbled to fine dust when once broken out, whereas the natural strata adhere more firmly together. After digging down for about eight feet, we came to earthenware, of a rough description, and rudely painted, some of which had been used for water, others for cooking utensils, from the evident marks of fire on them; the whole contained nothing but sand. I was obliged to erect a windlass, and use buckets to send the sand up in. At about fourteen feet depth we met with some human bones, the thigh and arm-pieces, but no scull or teeth; and after continuing our labour to the depth of thirty feet, we reached the original native strata. All the graves I. opened, yielded nothing but earthenware, called by the natives losa; from which I am led to believe, that, on the death of an Indian, all his riches were thrown into the Lake of Guatavita, in honour of the deity; for in other parts, where they have no holy place of worship. their wealth has been found buried in their graves with them. In Peru, large fortunes have been made, by discovering the cementery of a chief; and some were so deep, as to render it necessary to work them by candle-light." And here, tradition reports, that there exists a cave, connected with the worship of the lagoon, at the entrance of which formerly stood

* The geological character of this cavernous tract of country deserves to be investigated. Some of these Indian caves contain nitre. The fact of their being used as places of sepulture by the aborigines is highly curious. The whole formation is probably sand-stone, which prevails in this neighbourhood.