138 CATTLE OF THE LLANOS. 



five pounds) of tasajo* or dried meat slightly salted. It 

 is not from the advancement of agriculture, or the progres- 

 sive encroachments on the pastoral lands, that the hatos 

 (herds and flocks) have diminished so considerably within 

 twenty years ; it is rather owing to the disorders of every 

 kind that have prevailed, and the want of security for pro 

 perty. The impunity conceded to the skin-stealers, and 

 the accumulation of marauders in the savannahs, preceded 

 that destruction of cattle caused by the ravages ot civil 

 war, and the supplies required for troops. A very con- 

 siderable number of goat-skins is exported to the island of 

 Marguerita, Punta Araya, and Corolas ; sheep abound only 

 in Carora and Tocuyo. The consumption of meat being 

 immense in this country, the diminution of animals has a 

 greater influence here than in any other district on the 

 well-being of the inhabitants. The town of Caracas, of 

 which the population in my time was one-tenth of that ol 

 Paris, consumed more than one-half the quantity of beei 

 annually used in the capital of France. 



I might add to the productions of the vegetable and 

 animal kingdoms of Venezuela the enumeration of the 

 minerals, the working of which is worthy the attention of 

 the government ; but having from my youth been engaged 

 in the practical labours of mines, I know how vague and 

 uncertain are the judgments formed of the metallic wealth 

 of a country from the mere appearance of the rocks, and 

 of the veins in their beds. The utility of such labours can 

 be determined only by well directed experiments, by means 

 of shafts or galleries. All that has been done in researches 

 of this kind, under the dominion of the mother-country, 

 has left the question wholly undecided, and the most ex- 

 aggerated ideas have been recently spread through Europe, 

 concerning the riches of the mines of Caracas. The com- 

 mon denomination of Columbia given to Venezuela and 



* The back of the animal is cut in slices of moderate thickness. An 

 ox or cow of the weight of 25 arrobas produces only 4 to 5 arrobas of 

 tasajo or tasso. In 1792, the port of Barcelona alone exported 98,017 

 arrobas to the island of Cuba. The average price is 14 reals, and varies 

 from 10 to 18 (the real is worth about 6$tf. English). M. Urquinasa 

 estimates the total exportation of Venezuela in 1809, at 200,000 arrobai 

 Of tasajo. 



