THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



121 



Buildings raised upon the shore saw the waters withdraw 

 year by year. Tn 1790 new islands made their appearance. 

 An important military post, a fortress built in 1740 on the 

 island of Cabrerai was then found on a peninsula. Lastly, 

 on two islands of gi-anite — those olCuba and Caho Blanco — 

 Humboldt found, in brushwood, at some metres above the 

 level of the watere, naked sand filled with helicites. Facts 

 so clear and certain have not faihd (o give rise to numerous 

 explanations, wiiich had all, in commoa, a subterranean 

 issue, peimittingthe waters of the lake to have a free escape 

 towards the ocean. Humboldt did justice to these hypo' 

 theses ; and, after a mature examination of the localities, 

 that celebrated traveller does not hesitate to ascribe the 

 dimuiution of the waters of the Lake of Tacaragua to the 

 numerous clearings executed during half a century in the 

 Valley of Aragua. " In cutting do^\'n the trees which covered 

 the summit and slopes of the mountains," he says, " man, 

 under all climates, prepares for future generations two cala- 

 mities at once — a want of fuel, and a scarcity of water." 



Since Oviedo — who, like all chroniclers, has kept a pro- 

 found silence respectmg the diminution of the lake — the 

 cultivation of indigo, sugar cane, cotton, and cacao, has 

 been extensively developed. Li 1800, the Valley of Aragua 

 shewed a population as dense as the best peopled parts of 

 France. Travellers were agreeably surprised at the comfort 

 wliich reigned in the numerous villages of that industrious 

 country. Such was the prosperous state of that fine dis- 

 trict when Humboldt dwelt at the Hacienda of Cura. 



Twenty-two years later I explored in my turn the Valley 

 of Aragua. I had fixed my residence in the little town of 

 Maracay. For many years the inhabitants had observed 

 that not only had the waters of the lake diminished no 

 longer, but that they had exhibited a very perceptible in- 

 crease. -Fields formerly occupied by cotton plantations 

 were submerged ; the Isles of Las Nuevas Aparecidas, which 

 rose above the surface in 1796, had again become shal- 

 lows dangerous to navigation. The tongue of land of 

 Cabrera on the north side of the valley had become so 

 narrow that the smallest swell inundated it to such a 

 degree as to submerge it. A north-east wind was sufficient 

 to overflow with water the roads of Maracay and Nueva 

 Valencia. 



The fears which were for a long time entertained by the 

 owners of property on the shores were changed in their 

 character; they no longer dreaded the complete drying-up 

 of the lake ; but they asked if the successive invasions of 

 the waters would continue, for any length of time, to take 

 away their lands. Those who had explained the diminu- 

 tion of the lake by imaginary subterranean channels now 

 endeavoured to show that they were stopped up, in order to 

 find a reason for the change. 



In the twenty-two years that had passed great political 

 events had been accomplished. Venezuela no longer be- 

 longed to Spain ; the peaceable Valley of Aragua had 

 been the theatre of the most bloody struggles; war to 

 the death had devastated those smihug countries, and 

 decimated their populations. At the first cry of indepen- 

 dence a great number of slaves obtamed their freedom 

 under the flag of the new republic. The extensive culti- 

 vation had been abandoned, and the forest, so encroaching 

 under the tropics, had soon resumed a great part of the 

 land which men had snatched from it by more than a 

 century of constant and painful labour. 



During the prosperity of the Valley of Aragua the dif- 

 ferent tributaries of the lake were made use of for nume- 

 rous irrigations. The beds of these rivers were found to 

 dry^up during more than sis monlhs of the year. At the 



period of which I speak, the waters which were no longer 

 utilized flowed at liberty. 



Thus, during ihe development of agricultural industry 

 in the Valley of Aragua, when the clearings were multi- 

 plied and extensive cultivation was carried on, the level of 

 the lake gradually lowered. At a later period, during a 

 period of disasters happily passed away, the cleavings were 

 aiTested, the lands occupied by cultivation have partly 

 returned agam to forest ; then the waters ceased to sink, and 

 soon after an ascentional movement was very perceptible. 



I shall now shift the discussion, without however quitting 

 America, to a region where the climate, analogous to that 

 of Europe, admits of tlio culture of cereals. I refer to the 

 plateau of New Grenada, of those high valleys, elevated 

 from '.i,000 to 3,000 metres, and m which they enjoy a tem- 

 perature of 14 deg. to 10 deg. centigrade.* The lakes are 

 numerous in the Cordilleras, and it would be easy for me 

 to describe a great number of them, but I shall confine 

 myself to a description of those which have been the sub- 

 ject of ancient observations. 



The village of Ubate is situated in the neighbourhood 

 of two lakes. Sixty years ago these two lakes formed 

 only one.-)- Since that period the waters have been noticed 

 to dimmish gradually, and new shores extended themselves 

 from year to year. At the present time, fields of wheat 

 of extreme fertility cover a tract that thirty years ago was 

 completely under water.]: 



In going over the environs of Ubate, consulting the 

 old hunters of the country, and inspecting the archives of 

 the parishes, we ascertained that numerous forests have 

 been cut down. These clearmgs continue, arid it is evi- 

 dent that the retreat of the waters, although much slower 

 than formerly, has not yet wholly ceased. 



The Lake of Fuquene, situated in the sama valley, to 

 the east of Ubate, claims all our attention. By barome- 

 trical measurements made with extreme earje, I have found 

 that it has the same elevation as those of Ubate. It is 

 nearly two centuries ago that this lake wae visited by 

 Don Lucas Fernandez de Piedraheita, Bishop of Panama, 

 author of the Hislonj of the Conquest o/ New Grenada. This 

 writer, of whom I have more than once had occasion to 

 state the exactness of the estimate he has made of dis- 

 tances, gives to the Lake of Fuquene a length of ten 

 leagues and a breadth of three leagues. j| By a happy 

 circumstance Dr. Roulin had occasion some years since 

 to draw a plan of this lake, when he found it a league 

 and a half in length and a league in width. 



It might be feared that the dimensions stated by Pied- 

 raheita were exaggerated, but I do not tliiuk so; and in 

 f(n'ming my opinion on the one hand on my own barome- 

 trical levels, and on the other on the silence of chroiriclers 

 in regard to the Lakes of Ubate, which is the more remark-^ 

 able that they make mention of collections of water much 

 less considerable, I am inclined to believe that at the period 

 at which the Bishop of Panama visited that country there 

 was oivly one large lake, which extended without interruption 

 from Ubate to Zimijaca. With this supposition, the 

 estimate of Piedraheita was in no respect exaggerated. In 

 other respects the fact of the retreat of the waters is much 

 more important than the estimate of the surface of the land 



* The centigrade thermometer has 100 degrees between the 

 freezing and boiling points (32 deg. and 212 deg. of Fahrenheit). 



t I found the ele/ation of these lakes to be 2,532 metres. 



t The lowering of the mean level of a lake is so much the more 

 easy to ascertain, that a reduction of 3 or 4 inches often l.iys dry 

 a large surface of land. 



II Piedrahei'a ; Histjriadc la C'onquista de la Nueva Grenada, 

 page 5. 



