10 CARACAS. 



find ourselves surrounded by the smiling vales and ver- 

 dant plains of Bogota. If, from the tripartition cf the 

 system in Colombia, we journey along the eastern branch 

 until we reach the sea, then follow the range for one hun- 

 dred miles, as it sweeps along the coast, bathing its feet 

 in the waters of the Caribbean, we find ourselves in one 

 of the most beautiful valleys that fancy could depict. 



Here, lying between two parallel ranges of the Cordil- 

 lera, at an elevation of nearly three thousand feet (2,924) 

 above the Atlantic, is the picturesque valley of Caracas. 

 This plateau runs east and west, having a length of ten 

 miles, and a breadth of six or seven. On the south is a 

 range of hills which separates it from the valley of Tui, 

 while on the north are the high mountains of Silla and 

 Avila of the coast-chain. The Rio Guaira, taking its rise 

 in the mountains of Higuerote on the west, flows through 

 the valley, irrigating the soil, and maintaining a most 

 luxuriant growth of vegetation. The climate is that of 

 perpetual spring. What place can we conceive to be 

 more delightful than that where the temperature of the 

 day is never above eighty degrees, and at night seldom 

 below sixty;* where vegetation is always green, flowers 

 ever blooming, and fruit in the greatest abundance and 

 variety at all seasons ? Here, growing side by side, are 

 the banana, the cocoa-nut, pine-apple, orange, grape,' 

 peach, Indian corn, and strawberry. There is no particu- 

 lar season for seed-time or harvest. Fields of maize may 

 be seen in every stage of growth, from the young and 

 tender blade just shooting upward into light, to the full 

 and ripened ear of harvest-time. From the same shrub 

 or tree maybe enjoyed the fragrance of its flowers and 

 the flavor of its fruit. 



Not less beautiful is Nature in her wildness than 

 when under the controlling influence of domestic culture. 



* The average annual temperature is Yl°. 



