PERSONAL NARRATIVE 



OF A 



JOURNEY 



TO THE 



EQUINOCTIAL REGIONS 



OP 



THE NEW CONTINENT. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Lake of Tacarigua. Hot Springs of Mariara. Town of Nueva Valencia 

 del Key. Descent towards the Coasts of Porto Cabello. 



THE valleys of Aragua form a narrow basin between gra- 

 nitic and calcareous mountains of unequal height. On the 

 north, they are separated by the Sierra Mariara from the 

 sea-coast ; and towards the south, the chain of Guacimo 

 and Tusma serves them as a rampart against the heated 

 air of the steppes. Groups of hills, high enough to deter- 

 mine the course ol the waters, close this basin on the east 

 and west like transverse dykes. We find these hUs between 

 the Tuy and La Victoria, as well as on the road from 

 Valencia to Nirgua, and at the mountains of Torito.* From 



* The lofty mountains of Los Teques, where the Tuy takes its source, 

 may be looked upon as the eastern boundary of the valleys of Aragua. 

 The level of the ground continues, in fact, to rise from La Victoria to the 

 Hacienda de Tuy ; but the river Tuy, turning southward in the direction 

 of the sierras of Guniraima and Tiara has found an issue on the east , 



VOL. II. B 



