BASIN OF VENEZUELA, 859 



of Cape Coclera and Cumana, where a great part of the 

 littoral Cordillera of "Venezuela has been destroyed, that the 

 waters of the Llanos (the Bio Unare and the Bio Neveri) 

 reach the northern coast. The partition ridge of this basin 

 is formed by small table-lands, known by the names of Mesas 

 de Amana, Guanipa, and Jonoro. In the eastern part, be- 

 tween the meridians C3 and G6, the plains or savannahs 

 run southward beyond the bed of the Orinoco and the 

 Imataca, and form (as they approach the Cujuni and the 

 Essequibo) a kind of gulf along the Sierra Pacaraina. 



(5) Part of the basin of Venezuela running from south to 

 nor/A.-^-The great breadth of this zone of savannahs (from 

 100 to 120 leagues) renders the denomination of 'land- 

 strait ' somewhat improper, at least if it be not geognosti- 

 cally applied to every communication of basins bounded by 

 high Cordilleras. Perhaps this denomination more properly 

 belongs to that part in which is situated the group of almost 

 unknown mountains that surround the sources of the Bio 

 Kegro. In the basin comprehended between the eastern 

 declivity of the Andes of New Grenada, and the western 

 part of the Sierra Parime, the savannahs, as we have ob- 

 served above, stretch far beyond the equator ; but their 

 extent does not determine the southern limits of the basin 

 here under consideration. These limits are marked by a 

 ridge which divides the waters between the Orinoco and the 

 Eio Negro, a tributary stream of the Amazon. The rising 

 of a counterslope almost imperceptible to the eye, forms a 

 ridge that seems to join the eastern Cordillera of the Andes 

 to the group of the Parime. This ridge runs from Ceja 

 (lat. 1 45'), or the eastern slope of the Andes of Timana, 

 between the sources of the Guayavero and the Eio Caguan, 

 towards the isthmus that separates the Tuamini from Pimi- 

 chin. In the Llanos, consequently, it follows the parallels 

 of 20 30' and 2 45'. It is remarkable that we find the 

 divortia aquarum further westward on the back of the Andes, 

 in the knot of mountains containing the sources of the 

 ftjjigdalena, at a height of 900 toises above the level of the 

 Llanos, between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific ocean, 

 and almost in the same latitude (1 45' 2 20 7 ). From the 

 isthmus of Javita towards the east, the line of the partition 



