$ CORDILLERA OF THE COAST. 



the quality of the soil and the metallic riches of tLe districts 

 oF Area, of Barquesnneto, and of Carora. 



From tne Sierra Nevada of Merida, and the paramos of 

 Niquitao, Bocono, and Las Rosas,* which contain the valu- 

 able bark-tree, the eastern Cordillera of New Granada t 

 decreases in height so rapidly, that, between the ninth and 

 tenth degrees of latitude, it forms only a chain of little 

 mountains, which, stretching to the north-east by the Altar 

 and Torito, separates the rivers that join the Apure and 

 the Orinoco from those numerous rivers that flow either 

 into the Caribbean Sea or the lake of Maracaybo. On this 

 dividing ridge are built the towns of Nirgua, San Felipe 

 el Fuerte, Barquesioeto, and Tocuyo. The first three are 

 in a very hot climate; but Tocuyo enjoys great coolness, 

 and we heard with surprise, that, beneath so fine a sky, the 

 inhabitants have a strong propensity to suicide. The 

 ground rises towards the south; for Truxillo, the lake of 

 IJrao, from which carbonate of soda is extracted, and La 

 Grita, all to the east of the Cordillera, though no farther 

 distant, are four or five hundred toises high. 



On examining the law which the primitive strata of the 

 Cordillera of the coast follow in their dip, we believe we 

 recognize one of the causes of the extreme humidity of the 

 land bounded by this Cordillera and the ocean. The dip of 

 the strata is most frequently to the north-west ; so that the 

 waters flow in that direction on the ledges of rock; and 

 form, as we have stated above, that multitude of torrents 

 and rivers, the inundations of which become so fatal to the 



* Many travellers, who were monks, have asserted that the little 

 Paramo de Las Rosas, the height of which appears to be more than 

 1,600 toises, is covered with rosemary, and the red and white roses of 

 Europe grow wild there. These roses are gathered to decorate the altars 

 in the neighbouring villages on the festivals of the church. By what 

 accident has our Rosa centifolia become wild in this country, while we 

 nowhere found it in the Andes of Quito and Peru ? Can it really be the 

 rose-tree of our garden ? 



f The bark exported from the port of Maracaybo does not come from 

 the territory of Venezuela, but from the mountains of Pamplona in New 

 Grenada, being brought down the .'Rio de San Faustino, that flows into 

 the lake of Maracaybo. (Pombsv Noticias sobre las Quinas,. 1814, 

 p. 65.) Some is collected near Mtcida, in the ravine of Viscucucuy. 



