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Cocuyza to those of Torito and Nirgua^ and 

 from La Sierra de Mariara to the chain of 

 Guigue, of Guacimo, and La Palma, was filled 

 with water. Every where the form of the pro- 

 montories, and their steep declivities, seem to 

 indicate the shore of an alpine lake, similar to 

 those of Styria and Tyrol. The same little 

 helicites, the same valvse, which now live in the 

 lake of Valencia, are found in layers of three or 

 four feet in the island, as far as Turmero and 

 La Concesion near La Victoria. These facts 

 undoubtedly prove a retreat of the waters ; but 

 nothing indicates, that this retreat has continued 

 from that remote period to our days. The 

 valleys of Aragua are one of the parts of Vene- 

 zuela the most anciently peopled ; and yet there 

 is no mention in Oviedo, or any other old chro- 

 nicler, of a sensible diminution of the lake. 

 Ought we simply to suppose, that this phenome- 

 non escaped their observation, at a time when the 

 Indian population far exceeded the white, and 

 when the banks of the lake were less inhabited ? 

 Within half a century, and particularly within 

 these thirty years, the natural desiccation of this 

 great basin has excited general attention. We find 

 vast spaces of land that were formerly inundated, 

 now dry, and already cultivated with plantains, 

 sugar-canes, or cotton. Wherever a hut is 

 erected on the bank of the lake, we see the 

 shore receding from year to year. We discover 



