EESOUECES OF VENEZUELA. 127 



classes obtain strong narcotic effects. Other vegetable products, such as the 

 tonka bean, rubber, sarsaparilla and copaiba, are nearly all gathered, in the wild 

 state. Locusts are the chief plague of the peasants, especially on the Cumana 

 sea,board and on the verge of the llanos. 



It seeras probable, from the successful efforts already made to bring the llanos 

 under cultivation, that these vast plains may one day be transformed to tilled 

 land. But hitherto they have been utilised mainly as cattle -runs. The stock is 

 subject to tremendous vicissitudes due to the incidence of wars, droughts, epidemics, 

 and other calamities. Thus it was reduced from at least 5,000,000 to less than 

 1,400,000 during the decade ending 1873, by the protracted civil wars and plun- 

 dering expeditions of that disastrous epoch. On the other hand there was an 

 enormous increase in 1888, when the horned cattle numbered nearly 8,500,000, or 

 about four to every inhabitant of Venezuela. Such a proportion exceeds even 

 that of Denmark, which has relatively the lurgest number of any state in Europe. 



Extensive as it is, the land under tillage and grass represents only about half 

 of the republic, the rest consisting of forests which at present yield nothing but 

 fruits, rubber, fibres, and drugs. But in the neighbourhood of Bolivar, and along 

 the route followed by the steamers jolying between that place and Trinidad, the 

 demand for fuel has already made serious inroads on the woodlands. The wood- 

 man's axe has also begun to attack such trees as are useful as timber, or for 

 cabinet-work. In all the north-western districts near the seaports the inhabitants 

 have long been felling the dyewoods and the diridivi, which, being rich in astrin- 

 gent principles, is highly valued by the European tanners. 



Despite the abundance of animal life in the Margarita waters, and in the 

 Apure and some other rivers of the llanos, the fishing industry remains in a very 

 backward state. The pearl-banks in the Margarita Archipelago are all but 

 exhausted, and the total annual value of the Venezuelan fisheries averages scarcely 

 more than £300,000. 



Mineral Wealth — Industries. 



Although rich in metals, Venezuela is far surpassed by all the other Andean 

 republics, except Ecuador, in the production of minerals. It yields little to com- 

 merce besides the copper of Area and the gold of Yuruauri, although it possesses 

 rich stores of lead, tin and especially iron. A few coalfields are worked, as well 

 as pitch-lakes like those of Trinidad, occurring in lands of similar formation 

 near the Orinoco delta and round the shores of Lake Maracaibo. Phosphates of 

 lime and guanos have been discovered on the seaboard, in the adjacent islands 

 and round the verge of the llanos. Natural salines have also been formed in all 

 the coast lagoons, where they are separated by strips of sand from the sea. The 

 annual yield of all the saltpans is estimated at 100,000 tons, valued at over 

 £10,000 in favourable years. 



Manufacturing industries, properly so called, can scarcely flourish in a land 

 like Venezuela, whose rural populations have no need of luxuries. They are 

 satisfied with palm-thatched cabins, whose floors are of beaten earth, and whose 

 furniture is limited to rough tables hewn in the neighbouring forests, a few chairs 



