The Magdalena is subject to overflow in the month of December, at which time it rises thirteen or fourteen feet above the usual level at its mouth, and inundates and fertilizes the adjacent lands; thus the country near the ocean is a succession of extensive marshes, famous for the fine cacao produced in them. The mountains bordering this river near Honda, are remarkable for the horizontal situations of their strata, which are clearly seen, on account of the faces of the rocks being so perpendicular as to resemble walls; when any of these hills are insulated, they form such a regular cone, and the strata are so uniformly and cylindrically disposed, that they seem rather the work of art than of nature. One of these exists about a league from Honda, on the road to Mariquita, and is of such an extraordinary shape, and so symmetrical, that M. Bouguer forbears describing it minutely, for fear of being thought to take the usual liberty imputed to travellers. Other mountains in the vicinity of this river assume the shapes of ancient and sumptuous edifices; of chapels, domes, castles and fortifications, consisting of long curtains surmounted with parapets. From the circumstance of the strata of all these corresponding in a singular manner, the celebrated _savan_, above mentioned, supposes that the valley must have been sunk by some sudden convulsion of nature, leaving the sides of those hills uncovered whose bases were of more solid materials than itself. The same thing is observable on the banks of the Orinoco, though nothing of the kind is to be seen in Peru, where nature is so infinitely varied in her Alpine scenery. Most of the rivers which fall into the Magdalena are rapid, on account of the vicinity of the Cordilleras on each side. It may be easily imagined such streams cannot be crossed with stone bridges, in consequence of the immense pressure of the water, and because of the volumes of rock and earth which they roll from the interior. Bridges of most singular construction are therefore adopted, to facilitate the land journey from Santa Marta or Carthagena; roots of plants, twisted together into the form of cables, as thick as a manʼs thigh, are placed across the torrent; two of these are laid parallel to each other, at about four or five feet distance, and stretched on each side over a trestle of wood, having a windlass at one end to tighten them; over these cables are placed fascines, or branches of trees, and a little higher than the two bottom ropes, are fixed two slighter ones, in order to serve as balustrades. When a large river is crossed in this manner, the weight of the cables causes the bridge to form a considerable curve or concavity, and the traveller arriving in the centre, experiences a very unpleasant, and sometimes dangerous oscillation.