].50 



LAKi: OF VALENCIA. 



Cmrltlc 



ncia. 



CHAP. XIV. wliin the liurning soil is covered with a wavy vaponr, 

 artificial irrijjations keep up its verdure and fecundity. 

 Here and there the granitic rocks piirce the cultivated 

 land and enormous masses rise ahruptly in the midst of 

 the plain, tlieir hare and fissured surfaces affording 

 nourishment to some succulent plants, which prepare a 

 Soil for future ages. Often on the summit of these 

 detached hills, a iig-tree or a clusia, with juicy leaves, 

 liave fixed their roots in the rock, and overlook the 

 landscape. With their dead and withered hranchcs 

 they seem like signals erected on a steep hill. The 

 fonn of tliese eminences reveals the secret of their 

 oriirin ; for wiien the whole of this valley was filled 

 with water, and the waves heat against the base of the 

 jieaks of Mariara, tiie Devil's Wall, and the coast chain, 

 these rocky hills were shoals or islets." 



But the Lake of Valencia is remarkable for other cir- 

 cumstances tlian its beauties. From a careful examina- 

 tion, Humboldt was convinced that, in very remote 

 times, the whole valley, from the mountains of Cocuyza 

 to those of Torito and Nirgua, and from the Sierra of 

 Mariara to that of Guigue, Guacimo, and La Palmn, 

 had been filled with water. 'J'he form of the promon- 

 tories and their abrupt slopes indicate the shores of an 

 Alpine lake. Tiie same little shells (hclicites and val- 

 vattp), which occur at the present day in the Lake of 

 Valencia, are found in layers three or four feet thick in 

 the heart of the country, as far as Turmero and Li\ 

 Concesion near Victoria. These facts prove a retreat 

 of tlie waters ; but no evidence exists that any consider- 

 able diminution of them has taken place in recent times, 

 altlioui:h within the thirty years preceding Humboldt's 

 visit the gradual desiccation of this great basin had 

 excitid general attention. This, however, is not depen- 

 dent upon subterranean channels, as some su])pose, but 

 upon tile efleits of evaporation, increased by the changes 

 o|ierated upon the surface of tlie country. Forests, by 

 siieltering tlie soil from the direct action of the sun, 

 dimini-h the waste of moisture ; consequently, when 



liiinimitlon 

 vt water. 



