80 



Guayra and the Tuy is more than twenty-five 

 square leagues. We there fqund only one 

 miserable village, that of Los Teques, to the 

 South-East of San Pedro. The soil is in some 

 sort farrowed by a multitude of valleys, the 

 smallest of which, parallel with each other^ 

 terminate at a right angle in the largest valleys. 

 The back of the mountains is of an aspect as 

 monotonous as the ravines $ it has no pyramidal 

 forms, no ridges, no steep declivities. I am 

 inclined to think, that the undulation of this 

 ground, for the most part gentle, is less owing 

 to the nature of the rocks, to the decomposition 

 of the gneiss for instance, than to the long abode 

 of water, and the action of currents. The lime- 

 stone mountains of Cumana exhibit the same 

 phenomenon to the North of Tumiriquiri *. 



From Las Lagunetas we descended into the 

 valley of the rio Tuy. This western slope of the 

 mountains of Los Teques bears the name of Las 

 Cocuyzas ; it is covered with two plants with 

 agave leaves ; the maguey of Cocuyza, and the 

 maguey of Cocuy. The latter belongs to the 

 genus yucca f . It's sweet and fermented juice 

 yields a spirit by distillation ; and I have seen 

 the young leaves of this plant eaten. The 



* See chap, vi, vol. iii, p. 90. 

 f It is our yucca acaidis, Nov, Gm., voU \ } p. 289» 



