INFLUENCE OF AGRICULTURE ON CLIMATE. 499 



continu.niG N.E. wind was sumcient to flood the road winch led 

 from iManioaiho to New Valencia ; in short, the fears which the in- 

 habitants of the lake had entertained for so long a period had entirely 

 changed their nature ; they were now no longer afraid ot the lake dry- 

 incT up ; they saw with dismay that if the water continued to nse as 

 it had done lately, it would in no long space of time have drowned 

 some of the mosi valuable estates, &c. Those who had explained 

 the diminution of the lake by supposing subterraneous canals novN 

 hastened to close them up in order to find a cause for the rise in the 



level of the water. . ^,.iiiinul 



In the course of the last twenty-two years important political 

 events had transpired. Venezuela no longer belonged t« ^P^^^- \';'^ 

 peaceful valley d'Aragua had been the theatre o many a bloody c^, .- 

 u'st ; war to the knife had desolated this beauti ul cotintry and deci- 

 mated its inhabitants. On the first cry ot independence raised, a 

 great numbe.- of slaves found freedom by enlisting under the banners 

 o 'he new republic; agricultural operations ot any extent were 

 abandoned, and the forest, whic. makes such rapid pvog-ss in the 

 tropics, had soon regained possession ot the surtace which man had 

 V on from it by sont^thmg like a century of sustained and painful 

 tod With the increasing prosperity of the valley many ot the prin- 

 cipal tributaries to the lake had been turned aside to serve as means 

 otM rigation, so that the beds of some of the rivers were abscd.itely 

 drv fo^more than six months in the year At the penod uhich 

 now refer to, the water was no longer used in this way, and the beds 

 of he ivers were full. Thus with the growth ot agricultural mdus- 

 t V n the Valley d'Aragua, when the extent ot cleared surtace was 

 cm. inually on the increase, and when great tarming establishments 

 Zre multiplied, the level of the water sunk; but by and by, during 

 : period of'disa^ters, happily passing in their -^'^^^^^J^^^, 

 clearincr is arrested, the lands formerly won from the forest aie m 

 paTt iestored to it, and then the waters first cease to fall m their le- 

 vel and bv and by show an unequivocal disposition to rise. 



I shall now, without, however, quitting America, -r^-y my read- 

 ers into a district where the climate is analogous to that o burcpe 

 wheie the surface is occupied by immense fields, covered with the 

 oereals as with us. I spelk of the table-lands of New Granada ot 

 u'sevaley raised from 10,000 to 13,000 and 14,000 feet above 

 te Teve oTthe sea, m which the mean temperature throughou l e 

 vear rancres from 58" to about 62° Fahr. Lakes are frequent in the 

 Cordut^sVand it would be easy for me to describe a great num- 

 ber Is! 'ai, however, confine myself to those which became subjects 



^'it^t^^e :\ 'vZl T::. sUuated m the neighborhood of two 

 lakes Some seventy years ago these two 1^^- tormed n. oii^, 

 the oil itdiabitants saw the water shrinking and new fields pie 

 s nt ng Ihemselves year after year. At this P---^^^^^^ ^^tm- 

 vvheat of extraordinary luxuriance occupy levels that were com 

 pletelv inundated 30 years ago. • 1 1 . u^^^ nf Tlhate 



^ It IS enough indeed to perambulate the neighborhood of Ubate, 



