352 Geological Delineation of South America,. 



stands at the edge of the plain of" Caracas, which is scarcely 

 forty toises above the level of the sea. Mont Blanc, which 

 terminates the high ridge of the Alp?, exhibits the same 

 phaenonienon. The altitude of the highest mountains, 

 however, is so very small in proportion to the magnitude 

 of the earth that it would appear that very small local causes 

 ought to have accumulated more matter in these points. 

 That part of the cordillera of the coast which lies to the 

 west of Maracaybo-Sees, and joins the Andes, has large 

 valleys extending from north to south, such as that of Mag- 

 dalena, of Cauca, of Saint George, of Sinn, and Atrato. 

 They are very long and narrow, but covered with wood. 



On the other hand, that part of the cordillera which ex- 

 tends from Merida to Trinidad incloses three valleys lying 

 east and v/est, which show by certain signs, like Bohemia, 

 or the Haslithal of Swisserland, that they have formerly 

 been lakes the w ater of which has evaporated or run off by 

 opening for itself a passage. These three valleys are in- 

 closed by the two parallel rows of mountains into which 

 the cordillera of the coast divides itself^ from Cape Vela to 

 Cape Codera; the northern row is a continuation of Saint 

 Martha, the southern a prolongation of Sierra Nevada de 

 Merida. The first extends through Burburuta, Rincon del 

 Diablo ; through the Sierras de Mariara, the mountain 

 Aguasncgras, Monte de Arila, and the Silla de Caracas, to 

 Cape Codera. The second from three to four miles more 

 to the south extends through Guigui, La Palma, the high 

 summits of Guairaima, Tiara, Guiripa, and the Savana de 

 Ocumare, as far as the mouths of the Tuy, These two 

 chains unite with two arms which run from north to south, 

 like, as it were, dykes, by which these old lakes were con- 

 lined within their boundaries. These dykes are, on the west 

 the mountains of Carora, Tonto, Saint Maria, Saint Phi- 

 lips, and Aroa ; they separate the Llanos de Monai from 

 the valleys of Aragua : on the east they are the naked sum- 

 mits of Los Teques, Cnquiza, Buena Vista, and the Altos 

 de S. Pedro, by which the valley of Aragua or the sources 

 of the Tuy (for there is only one valley between the bottom 

 of Coquiza or the Hacienda de Brisenno to Valencia) from 

 the valley of Caracas. On the east from Cape Codera the 

 greater part of the cordillera of the coast of Venezuela was 

 destroyed and laid under Vvater by the great catastrophe 

 which formed the Gulph of Mexico. The rest of it is di- 

 stinguished in the high mountain peaks of the Island of 

 Margaretha (Macanao and the Valle S. Juan) and in the 

 cordillera of the Isthmus of Araya, which contains the 

 3 micaceous 



