28 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



constructed by me Tom my own astronomical determinations 

 of geographical positions, and published in 1825. 



The coast chain of Venezuela, geographically considered, 

 is a part of the chain of the Andes of Peru. The chain of 

 the Andes divides itself, at the great mountain junction at 

 the sources of the Magdalena, south of Popayan, (between 

 1 55' and 2 20' latitude), into three chains, the easternmost 

 of which terminates in the snow-covered mountains of 

 Merida. These mountains sink down towards the Paramo 

 de las Rosas into the hilly land of Quibor and Tocuyo, which 

 connects the coast chain of Venezuela with the Cordilleras 

 of Cundinamarca. The coast chain forms an unbroken 

 rampart from Porto Cabello to the promontory of Paria. Its 

 mean height hardly equals 750 toises or 4795 English feet; 

 yet single summits, like the Silla de Caracas (also called 

 Cerro de Avila), decked with the purple-flowering Befaria 

 the American Eose of the Alps, rise 1350 toises or 8630 

 English feet above the level of the sea. The coast of Terra 

 Firma bears traces of devastation. "We recognise everywhere 

 the action of the great current which, sweeping from east to 

 west, formed by disruption the West Indian Islands, and 

 hoUowed out the Caribbean gulf. The projecting tongues of 

 land of Araja and Chuparipari, and especially the coast of Cu- 

 mana and New Barcelona, offer a remarkable spectacle to the 

 geologist. The precipitous Islands of Boracha, Caracas, 

 and Chimanas, rise like towers from the sea, and bear witness 

 to the terrible pressure of the ^waters against the mountain 

 chain when it was broken by their irruption. Perhaps, like 

 the Mediterranean, the Antillean gulf was once an inland 



