Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/802

 782 BOGOTA BogotA. the government mansion, luxuriously appoint- ed, and occupied by the president and the va- rious officers of the ministerial departments ; the house of congress ; and the observatory, octagonal in form and comprising three sepa- rate piles. Bogota has a mint, a theatre, a university, a national academy, four colleges, tvo of which date from the 17th century, and medical, law, normal, and infant schools. There is a museum in which are preserved petrified bones of mastodons from Tunja, the robe or aero of Atahuallpa's wife, Pizarro's standard, portraits of the Spanish viceroys, &c. Attached to it are a school of mines and a botanical school. The cathedral, erected in 1814, is rich- ly decorated within. There are 30 churches (inclusive of 9 monasteries and 5 nunneries), 22 of which are in the Oalle Real alone. Some are of handsome and all of solid architecture. There are a foundling, a general, and a military hospital ; a house of refuge for the relief and education of orphans and the children of the poor ; and other benevolent establishments, as also several barracks and an artillery depot, where military equipments are made and re- paired. There are a custom house and some good hotels, and two newspapers are published. The inhabitants of Bogota are chiefly Creoles, with half-breed Indians who are exclusively servants ; of mulattoes there are few, and ne- groes are rarely seen. The Bogotefios are in- telligent, sprightly, and urbane; the women have a remarkably clear complexion, and are in general handsome and fond of dress. Near the river Funza, here an inconsiderable stream, and in the immediate vicinity of the city, is the alameda, tastefully disposed with walks, fringed with trees and rose bushes and other fragrant flowers of luxuriant growth. Owing to the great elevation of the table land of Bogota, the temperature is mild and equable ; the climate, though humid, is not insalubrious, and epidem- ics are altogether unknown. The thermometer ranges from 45 to 65 F. There are two wet seasons, March to May and September to No- vember, when rains are at times so violent as to deluge the city with the floods which rush down from the mountains, if suitable ditches were not prepared to receive them. The man- ufactures of Bogota are limited to cotton and woollen cloths, soap, leather, and precious metal. The fine arts have been cultivated here to an extent altogether uncommon in South America ; and in one of the convents are preserved paintings of high merit by Vasquez, a native artist. Communication with the sea is carried on by steamers and barges through the river Magdalena, from the town of Honda (reached in about seven hours) to Cartagena, and to Barranquilla and Sabanilla, situated at the mouth of that river. The total distance is 600 m., and the journey may be performed in from 10 to 15 days; but the trip up stream sometimes occupies twice and even thrice that space of time. The river Meta, in the valley E. of the mountains behind Bogota, and com- municating with the Orinoco, affords easy and commodious communication with the E. prov- inces of Venezuela and the N. E. shores of the Atlantic. The plain of Bogota is 60 m. long from N. to S. and 30 m. wide from E. to W. ; it is intersected by verdant prairies and dense woods, affording some ornamental and many useful species of timber. The river Funza, formed by numerous mountain streams which take their rise 100 m. N. of the city, traverses the plain in a S. W. direction to Teqnendama, where, through a gap not over 36 ft. in width,