The Republican journal., 1903-02-19

/ consult ~ N. V . 4 lStISs ~ lSttNis /'Se'
All correspondence is held as strictly
private and sacredly confidential. Ad-
dress DR.. R V. Pierce. Buffalo, N. Y.
| three great ranges into which the
| Andes branch off as near the Isthmus,
gives an attenuation OF deep valleys
and heights that rise above the line OF
perpetual snow, all over the country,
and consequently a great diversity of
climate, from the cold of the polar re-
gions to the sweltering heats of Sene-
gal; while the tabe-lands and hill-sides
preserve the mild weather Of our semi
southern states, scarcely varying five
degrees III 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 OF 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-
| peUual summer to eternal snow; while
! between these extremes, at elevations
| from six to ten Thousand feet, you find
unbroken spring throughout the change
| less year and healthfulness so eXtraor-
dinary that the favored denizens liud it
I difficult to die, except from extreme Old
/ age. The great sanitaTium OF the Car
| ibbean coast is Turbaco, built upon q
! high hill few miles from Carthagena,
at the edge of the forest
| y description OF Colombia without
/ mentioning the famous falls of Tequen-
1 DANA. would seem akin to the frequent
ly quoted experiment, which nobody
/ ever tried, of attempting to play "llam-
/ let without the Prince OF Denmark.
! To reach them from Bogota requires d
! long Journey on horse back, in course
of which one must depend upon the
/ hospitality of the people for two nights,
or three, according to ones ability Ill
| the saddle. The route lies straight
across the Bogota plain and then skirts
/ the foot of hills whose almost perpen-
| dicular sides jut d thousand feet above
| the road You cross quaint stone
, bridge: which bears on a carved tablet
the date of 1876; pass wayside ranches
| hedged with tall cacti of the prickiy
pear and 'organ' variety and clumps
of gigantic aloes, OF century plants,
| ,t,,lI, tl,nt in,
| the distance looks like telegraph pole
with an enormous cluster of white flow
ers at the top: constantly meeting
! droves of donkeys laden with kegs of
miel (native molasses) ana pig-skins
of the favorite beverage, chiche
There is a posada, where you may al
ways find groups of country people
drinking chiche out of beautiful YER
million-stained gourds painted with
black figures which excite the sin of
covetousness in the most Christian
breast: and just within the edge of
Tequendama valley is the quinta
within whose hospitable walls travel
ers 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 be-
fore you is long ane territically steep
Nearing the falls the country becomes
indescribably lovely. Under tall palm
trees grow the rarest ferns, among them
species of gigantic maiden-hair; price
less orchids, creepers covered with
yellow flowers, wild fusias and geran-
iums with trunks like young trees and
purple blossoms resembling butterflies
with outspread wings; and over all
parroquites and red and blue macaws
are screaming and monkeys are swing
| ing from the branches. Suddenly you
emerge from the towery thicket into
an open space and see before you such
a view as is rarely presented to human
eyes, A huge ampitheatre of mighty
rocks, covered with dense vegetation,
surrounds a magnificent cascade, whose
height is variously stated from six
hundred to a 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 in
to pool of incalculable depth, and then
quietly flows away through the valley
below. The mists reflect all the colors
of the rainbow and such is the tremend-
Gus 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 num-
bers of ''goat-suckers" make their nests.
OF course the superstitious Indians
have surrounded the place with legends.
They say the Great Spirit himself tore