fj^trt Joitrth. 



NORTHERN REGIONS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 



CHAPTER L 



VENEZUELA. 



EW GRANADA is almost entirely a mountain 

 region^ occupied by the northern end of the Andes, 

 except where it slopes down towards the Isthmus 

 of Panama and the Caribbean Sea. Venezuela, however, 

 contains three distinct zones or characters of country — moun- 

 tains, forests, and open plains. The mountain regions, which 

 are also three in number, are separated by wide plains. On 

 the west, the mountains belong to the Andes — being spurs of 

 that range — a large portion consisting of table-lands, called 

 paramos, from 10,000 to 14,000 feet above the sea-level. 

 Among them lies the Lake of Maracaibo, ninety-two miles in 

 length, and eighty-two in width — the largest in Soutli 

 America. On the north-east is the Sierra de Bergantin, and 

 in the south-east the Sierra dc Parima. The forests extend 



