551 



It's height above the level of the ocean is there- 

 fore probably near thirteen hundred toises ; I 

 say probably, because I had the misfortune to 

 break my barometer before I reached Esme- 

 ralda. The rains fell so violently in our resting 

 places, that we could not preserve the instru- 

 ment from the effects of humidity, and the tube 

 was broken by the unequal dilatation of the 

 wood. I regretted this accident the more, as 

 never had a barometer resisted longer jour- 

 neys. I had used it during three years in Eu- 

 rope, amid the mountains of Styria, France, 

 and Spain, and in America on the way from 

 Cumana to the Upper Oroonoko. The country 

 between Javita, Vasiva, and Esmeralda, is a 

 vast plain ; and having opened the barometer 

 in the former two of these places, I do not fear 

 being mistaken in more than fifteen or twenty 

 toises in the absolute height of the savannahs of 

 Sodomoni. The Cerro Duida yields little in 

 height (scarcely eighty or one hundred toises) 

 to the summit* of St. Gothard, or the Silla of 

 Caraccas on the shore of Venezuela. It is in- 

 deed considered as a colossal mountain in those 

 countries; and this celebrity gives a precise 



=z 2605 varas, Cast. Height of Esmeralda a1)ove the level 

 of the sea, probably 177 toises, See above, chap. 22, p. 

 251. 



* Le Pettine. 



