ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 43 



ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 



(0 p. 25." The LaJce of Tacarigua." 



IN proceeding through the interior of South America from the 

 Caraccas or Venezuela shore towards the boundary of Brazil, from 

 the 10th degree of north latitude to the Equator, the traveller 

 crosses first an elevated mountain-chain running in an east and west 

 direction, next vast treeless Steppes or Plains (los Llanos), which 

 stretch from the foot of the above-named mountains (the coast chain 

 of Caraccas) to the left bank of the Orinoco, and lastly the range 

 which occasions the Cataracts of Atures and Maypure. This latter 

 range of mountains, to which I have given the name of the Sierra 

 Parime, runs in an easterly direction from the Cataracts to Dutch 

 and French Guiana. It is a mass of mountains divided into many 

 parallel ridges, and is the site of the fabled Dorado. It is bordered 

 on the south by the forest plain, through which the river of the 

 Amazons and the Rio Negro have formed the channels in which 

 their waters flow. Those who desire a fuller acquaintance with the 

 geography of these regions, will do well to consult and compare the 

 great map of La Cruz-Olmedilla, bearing date 1775, (from which 

 almost all the more recent maps of South America have been form- 

 ed,) and the map of Columbia constructed by me from my own 

 astronomical determinations of geographical positions, and published 

 in 1825. 



The coast chain of Venezuela, geographically considered, is a part 

 of the chain of the Andes of Peru. The chain of the Andes divides 

 itself, at the great mountain junction at the sources of the Magda- 

 lena, south of Popayan, (between 1 55' and 2 20' latitude,) into 

 three chains, the easternmost of which terminates in the snow-covered 

 mountains of Merida. These mountains sink down towards the 

 Paramo de las Rosas into the hilly land of Quibor and Tocuyo, 

 which connects the coast chain of Venezuela with the Cordilleras of 



