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Mountains of gneiss-granite in the province of Oaxaca. Latitude 18 1/2 to 19 1/2 degrees. Trachytic knot of Anahuac, parallel with the Nevados and the burning volcanoes of Mexico. Latitude 19 1/2 to 20 degrees. Knot of the metaliferous mountains of Guanaxuato and Zacatecas. Latitude 21 3/4 to 22 degrees. Linked by spurs to the maritime Alps, or mountains of California.
Between 33 and 18 degrees south latitude, between the parallels of Valparaiso and Arica, the Andes present towards the east three remarkable spurs, the Sierra de Cordova, the Sierra de Salta, and the Nevados de Cochabamba.
Still struggling on through the winding Puertos Nevados, or Snowy Passes, their track was dismally marked by fragments of dress, broken harness, golden ornaments, and other valuables plundered on their march, by the dead bodies of men, or by those less fortunate, who were left to die alone in the wilderness.
Such was the terrible passage of the Puertos Nevados, which I have only briefly noticed as an episode to the Peruvian conquest, but the account of which, in all its details, though it occupied but a few weeks in duration, would give one a better idea of the difficulties encountered by the Spanish cavaliers, than volumes of ordinary narrative.15
It is also worthy of remark that the central Cordillera of New Grenada displays the loftiest summit of the Andes in the northern hemisphere. It consequently surpasses Imbabura and Cotocache in the province of Quito, the Chiles of the table-lands of Los Pastos, the two volcanoes of Popayan and even the Nevados of Mexico and Mount Saint Elias of Russian America.
This group of colossal mountains is most frequently wrapped in thick clouds: and it is most veiled at the season when the gales blow with violence. Although only forty-five miles distant from the coast, it is of little service as a signal to mariners who seek the port of Saint Marta. Hidalgo during the whole time of his operations near the shore could take only one observation of the Nevados.
North-west of the valleys of Salcabamba, in the parallel of the ports of Huaura and Guarmey, between 11 and 10 degrees latitude, the two chains unite in the knot of the Huanuco and the Pasco, celebrated for the mines of Yauricocha or Santa Rosa. There rise two peaks of colossal height, the Nevados of Sasaguanca and of La Viuda.
Finally, the latter chain, to which I have given the designation of central, after forming the rapids and cataracts of the Amazon, between Tomependa and San Borja, turns to north-north-west, and joins the western chain, that of Caxamarca, or the Nevados of Pelagatos and Huaylillas, and forms the great knot of the mountains of Loxa.
I know only a few rare exceptions to this law, and they occur in the Cordilleras of Quito where the Nevados of Conderasto and Cuvillan, situated opposite to the trachytic Chimborazo, are composed of mica-slate and contain veins of sulphuret of silver.
The columns of cold air rush from the top of the Nevados of Quindiu and of Guanacas into the valley, driving before them the lower strata of the atmosphere. Everywhere the unequal heating of the soil, and the proximity of mountains covered with perpetual snow, cause partial currents within the tropics, as well as in the temperate zone.
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