12 CAEACAS. 



declivity, skirting the suburbs of the city, runs the 

 Rio Guaira, while crowding the town on the west are 

 rocky and sterile hills, which present a wild and gloomy 

 aspect. Rising abruptly on the north, is the Cerro de 

 Avila, down whose rugged slopes pour rushing torrents 

 into the streets of the city, whenever a storm sweeps over 

 the valley. Why Caracas was built in this wretched 

 corner, when so large and beautiful a plain lies spread out 

 before it, we cannot conceive. Could the town haA' e been 

 placed farther to the southward amid the charming sce- 

 nery of the valley, it would have occupied a site in every 

 way far preferable to its present position. Caracas in its 

 greatest length is about one and a half miles, and is of 

 nearly an equal breadth. Its area, although small, has 

 crowded within its limits a population of fifty thousand 

 inhabitants. Intersecting the city are deep ravines, some 

 of which are dry, others the channels of small rivers, the 

 Catuche, Caroata, and Arauco, which descend from the 

 mountains. The ghastly appearance of these immense 

 gullies, with their unsightly weeds and bushes, impresses 

 the traveller still more unfavorably with the situation of 

 the town. From tlie Rio Catuche the city is supplied 

 with water, which is brought from a reservoir about a 

 mile up the stream on the slope of Avila, and furnished 

 the inhabitants at public and private fountains. 



Caracas, like all Spanish- American towns, is regularly 

 built, with narrow streets crossing each other at right 

 angles. These are Avell paved, and slope toward the cen- 

 ti"e, thus making a sort of canal, which dispenses with 

 the need of gutters at the sides. The sidewalks, Avhich 

 are found only on the jjrincipal streets, are flagged, and 

 scarcely wide enough to allow two persons to pass. The 

 houses enclose pleasant court-yards, are mostly one story 

 in height, and solidly built, so as better to resist the 

 shocks of earthquakes, which are frequent along this 



