The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1875-11-19
For the Marietta journal.
SOUTH AMERICA.
Perpetual Spring in the Sight of Per
petual Snow,-Bogota,- Natives,
Soil, &c

; Soil, &c
t We are permitted to publish the
following extract from letter re
ceived by w. 2. McClatchey, o
Marietta, from a friend in Soutl
America
eve will begin at Barranguilla
near the mouth of Magdalena com
prises the region of the central part
of Colombia. Its length is over
five hundred miles. Its width va
ries. For the first two hundred
miles from the mouth of the river,
the lands of this valley are low and
marShy, subject to frequent over
flows. Yet with system of dykes,
similar to those in Louisiana, this
might be prevented, and the coun
try made one OF the most productive
10 the known world. The last three
hundred miles to Handa, the head
of steam navigation the lands are
more broken aud elevated. Cotton
and sugar cane grow well. Indian
corn is raised in small quantities.
The population is neither Spanish,
Indian or Negro, but a composition
of all these races.
Handa is an old fortified Spanish
town, built in the time of Phillip |.
Here we begin to strike the white
belt of Colombia. Many families
and settlements are found who are
purely descended from the Spanish
conquerors. Still in the interior dis
tricts of the Andes. The Chibcha
Indian is the basis of the population.
What is now the Republic of Colum>
bia, was first the Chibca Empire
This was subdued by Quesda in
1888. Bogota then, as now, was
the site of government. Among the
first buildings erected by Quesda
and his followers was little Catho-
lie chapel, within twenty PAGES of
where | am now writing, and which
is still standing. 1t bears date 1889.
The climate here is cold all the
year round. The mean tempera
ture is about 50 degrees. This is
owing to the great attitude, estima
ted variouSly from S7G0 to 1925 feet
above the level of the sea-that is
nearly two miles up in the clouds.
The atmosphere is thin, cold and
penetrating and this almost directs
ly under the Equatorial line. The
sun shines with great force, but the
atmosphere is so rare that the heat
is not retained. There are no sud
den changes. 1t is perpetual spring.
The thermometer seldom varies
more than two degrees in three or
four months. There is no frosts.-
Hail is rare, and yet we are in plain
view of the regions of perpetual
snow. We are likewise within view
of the torrid zone, the region of the
cocoanut and the palm.
Here we have a temperate zone
under the equinioxial line, and the
fruits and the products of the two
zones. Yet it is not exactly q tenn
perate zone. The extreme rarity Of
the atmosphere renders fire insuffer-
able in parlor, office or bedroom.
The air is too cold and damp to be
comfortable without fire. Hence
there is but one remedy: plenty of
out door exercise and thick cloths
ing.
The plain on which Bogota is sit
uafed is perfectly level and the soil
surprisingly fertile. Irish potatoes,
wheat, corn, rye, barley, oats, Glow
er and all the garden vegetables, are
grown here with comparatively little
labor. | have seen ripe wheat fields
on Christmas day, as also during
each month of the twelve. Cattle
grow fat on the native grass. Hogs
do not do so well They seem
wholly out of their element. In the
language of a Columbia wit: Boz
gotta is too near Heaven for swine
The people here, as rule, seldom
drink to beastly intoxication. The
national drink Of the lower classes is
Chichj, species of malt distilled
from the sugar cane. 1t is not in
toxicating so much as it is stupyfy-
ing. | do not remember to have
seen fight since my residence here.
The people are kind hearted, indo-
lent, hospital, and good natured.--
Most persons here of education or
political or social position speak from
two or three languages. The Span
ish is the national idiom of course.
The interior and elevated plains
OF the Andean districts are healthy
no chills or fever; no epidemics no
consumption. You will hear more
coughing in an East Tennessee
church in one Sunday than in DO
gotta in twelve months. But ner-
vous diseases are frequent here, as
at all great attitudes. Breathing is
more rapid, as per consequence the
pulse from ten to fifteen strokes more
rapid than in the low country
Sleep is less sound and refreshing /;
and, owing to the diminution of oxy-
gen, great abundance of fresh air
is necessary to health.
There is some as good society
hero as anywhere in Georgia or