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Valencia to Nirgua, and at the mountains of 

 Torito. From this extraordinary configuration 

 of the land, the little rivers of the valleys of 

 Aragua form a peculiar system, and direct their 

 course toward a basin closed on all sides. 

 These rivers do not bear their waters to the 

 ocean; they are collected in an interior lake, 

 and, subject to the powerful influence of evapo- 

 ration, they lose themselves, if we may use the 

 expression, in the atmosphere. On the existence 

 of these rivers and lakes the fertility of the soil, 

 and the produce of cultivation in these valleys, 

 depend. The aspect of the spot, and the ex- 

 perience of half a century have proved, that 

 the level of the waters is not invariable ; the 

 < waste by evaporation, and the increase from the 

 waters running into the lake, do not uninter- 

 ruptedly balance each other. The lake, being 

 elevated one thousand feet above the neighbour- 

 ing steppes of Calabozo, and one thousand 

 three hundred and thirty-two feet above the 

 level of the ocean, it has been suspected, that 



Tuy (295 t.) : but the river Tuy, turning South toward the 

 Sierras of Guairaima and Tiara, has found an issue on the 

 East ; and it is more natural to consider as the limits of the 

 basin of Aragua a line drawn through the sources of the 

 streams flowing into the lake of Valencia. The charts and 

 sections I have traced of the road from Caraccas to Nueva 

 Valencia, and from Porto Cabello to Villa de Cura, exhibit 

 the whole of these geological relations. 



