VENEZUELA 



IU1S 



VENEZUELA 



LOCATION MAP 

 Showing: the place of Vene- 

 zuela among the South Ameri- 

 can republics, and the pro- 

 portion of the continent it 



her than a commercial city. Ma: 

 on the strait connecting Lake Maracaiho \viili 

 the gulf, contains 50,000 people. Valencia, 

 rd from Caracas, has 10,000; the i>land 

 city of Margarita has 20.000; Bolivar, up the 

 Orinoco, is the market for the interior com- 

 merce; La Guayra, Puerto Cabello and Mara- 

 caibo, seaboard 

 are busy 

 of interna- 

 tional trade. 



Religion and 

 Education. The 

 religion of the 

 country is Roman 

 Catholic, but all 

 sects are given 

 freedom of wor- 

 ship. Some of 

 the old churches 

 are very interest- 

 ing. Education is 

 free and compul- 

 sory in the ele- 

 mentary grades. 

 There were in 

 1915 about 1,500 occu P ies - 

 elementary schools, with 50,000 pupils; fifty- 

 eight secondary schools for boys, thirty-eight 

 for girls and six for the education of both sexes. 

 Caracas has a normal school for women and 

 one for men. There are two vocational schools, 

 thirty-four national schools for higher instruc- 

 tion and twenty-one academies, aided by the 

 government. Caracas and Merida both have 

 universities, and in various cities are military, 

 commercial and other special schools. Despite 

 this attention to education, however, about 

 seventy-five per cent of the inhabitants cannot 

 read and write. 



Physical Features and Climate. With respect 

 to its physical features, Venezuela is divided 

 into three district regions, known as the llanos, 

 the plateaus and the mountain districts. The 

 llanos arc the river valleys and low, wet plains, 

 suited to the pasturing of great herds of cat- 

 tle. The plateaus are much cooler and drier, 

 and because of their elevation are pleasant and 

 wholesome. The eastern spurs of the Andes 

 Mountains are in the northwestern and north- 

 ern part. In the northwest occurs the loftiest 

 altitude in Venezuela, the Sierra Nevada de 

 Merida, which reach a height of 15,400 feet. 



The famous Orinoco, meaning coiled serpent, 

 is the great river of Venezuela, and has hun- 

 dreds of tributaries, among which is the Cassi- 



quiare, which also connects with the Rio Negro, 

 a branch of the Amazon. Facing the delta of 

 the Orinoco is the island of Trinidad, which 

 belongs to Great Britain. The island of Mar- 

 garita is famous for its pearl fisheries. There 

 are a number of smaller islands off the north- 

 ern coast belonging to Venezuela, but Mar- 

 garita is the only one of importance. Lake 

 Maracaibo, in the west, connected by a strait 

 with the Gulf of Maracaibo, is a hundred miles 

 in length. The region of this lake is the chief 

 agricultural district of the country. 



Venezuela lies wholly within the tropics, but 

 it has its well-marked' climatic zones. These, 

 however, are determined not by latitudes but 

 by altitudes. The temperature in the hot zone 

 varies from 74 to 91, that of the temperate 

 zone from 50 to 77, and that of the cold zone 

 from to 60. 



Products and Commerce. Asphalt, coffee, 

 gold, salt, pearls, beef, tropical fruits, woods, 

 leather and hides, cacao, rubber, tobacco and 

 medicinal plant products are among the varied 

 sources of Venezuela's wealth. The famous 



COMPARATIVE AREAS 



Venezuela is slightly larger than "Washington, 

 Oregon, Idaho and Montana. 



pitch lake of Trinidad and the Lake of Ber- 

 mudez in Venezuela are the greatest sources of 

 asphalt ill the world. Thirty-two million tons 

 of asphalt have been sent to the United States 

 in a single year. Modern refrigerating plants 

 for supplying meats for shipment are a new de- 

 velopment in Puerto Cabello and in Baranco, 

 on the Orinoco. A cocoanut butter and oil 

 factory has been established at Cumana, and 

 there has been in recent years an increase in 

 sugar manufacture. Agriculture, however, is 

 the chief industry; coffee ranks first among the 

 crops and among the exports. Other crops of 

 importance are cacao, which is produced in the 



