The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-02-17

gions to the sweltering heats of Sene-
gal; while the table-lands and hillsides
preserve the mild weather of our semi
southern states. scarcely varying five
degrees in temperature from year to
year 1t is only in the river valleys of
the interior, which are mostly covered
with swamps and tropical forests: that
intense heat and its resultant diseases
prevail. Hereabouts one does not need
to go north or south to find change of
climate, but merely up or down. The
successive elevations of the Andes pre-
sent all grades of transition from per-
petual summer to eternal snow; while
between these extremes, at elevations
from six to ten thousand feet, you find
unbroken spring throughout the
changeless year and healthfulness SO
extraordinary that the favored deni-
zens find it difficult to die except from
extreme old age. The great sanitatium
70 the Caribbean coast is TurbacO,
built upon a high hill a few miles from
Carthagena, at the edge of the forest.
A description of Colombia without
mentioning the famous falls of Tequen-
dana would seem akin to the frequent
ly quoted experiment, which nobody
ever tried, of attempting to play Ham
let" without the Prince of Denmark.
To reach them from Bogota requires
long journey on horseback. in course of
which one must depend upon the hos
pitality of the people for two nights, or
three, according to ones ability in the
saddle. The route lies straight across
the Bogota plain and then skirts the
foot of hills whose almost perpendicu-
lar sides jut thousand feet above the
road. You cross a quaint stone bridge,
which bears on carved table the date
of 1876; pass wayside ranches hedged
with tall cacti Of the prickly pear and
''organ" variety, and clumps Of gigan-
tic aloes, or century plants" many of
them rearing a stalk that in the dis
tance looks like a telegraph pole with
an enormous cluster of white flowers at
the top; constantly meeting droves of
donkeys laden with kegs of miel ina
tive molasses) and pig-skins of the ia
vorite beverage, chiche. There is a po-
sada, where you may always find
groups of country people drinking
chiche out of beautiful vermillion-
stained gourds painted with black fig
ures, which excite the sin of covetous-
ness in the most Christian breast; and
just within the edge of Tequendama
valley is the quinta wherein whose hos
pitable walls travellers must pass the
night, BOTH going and returning from
the falls. Next morning you make an
early start-the earlier the better, for
the road before you is long and terrif-
fically steep. Nearing the falls the
country becomes indescribably lovely.
Under tall palm-trees grow the rarest
ferns, among them a species of gigan-
tic maiden-hair: priceless orchids,
creepers covered with yellow flowers,
wild fucias and geraniums with trunks
like young trees. and purple blossoms
resembling butterflies with outspread
wings; and over all parroquetes and
red and blue macaws are screaming
and monkeys are swinging from the
branches. Suddenly you emerge from
the fiowery thicket into an open space
and see before you such view as Is
rarely presented to human eyes.
hugh amphitheater of mighty rocks,
covered with dense vegetation SUR
rounds a magnificent cascade, whose
height is variously stated from six hun
dred to thousand feet. The whole
body of the river, forcing itself through
a narrow fissure in the heights above,
comes tumbling down with deafening
roar. until in mist and vapor it dives
into a pool of incalculable depth. and
then quietly flows away through the
valley below. The rnistS reflect all the
colors of the rainbow and such is the
tremendous force of falling water that
it has actually followed out a we'll in
the solid rock. estimated as at least two
hundred feet deep. Birds fly in and out
of the spray, and it is said that behind
the cascade are caves in which great
numbers of 'goat-suckers" make their
nests. Of course the superstitious In
dams have surrounded the place with
legends. They say the Great Spirit
himself tore the mountains apart, so
that the river might come through to
fertilize the fields of their ancestors.
Biologists argue that the great plain of
Bogota, with it's encircling hills, was at
one time the basln OF IreSh-Waler
lake, which was maintained by the Bo-
gotta river with its numerous branches
rushing into 1t; until finally the pent-
up waters overlooked the natural dam
of rocks on it's southern edge and be-
gan the formation of the Taquendama
cascade. In course of time the dam
was entirely swept away and the lake
drained with the assistance of one OF
the earthquakes that so frequently rend
the Andes.
FANNIE B. WARD.