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succeeding* December. They remain dried up 

 m the lower part of their course, because the 

 planters of indigo, coffee, and sugar-canes, have 

 made frequent drainings (azequias), in order to 

 water the ground by trenches. We may observe 

 also, that a pretty considerable river, the Rio 

 Pao, which rises at the entrance of the Llanos, at 

 the foot of the range of hills called La Galera, 

 heretofore mingled it's waters with those of the 

 lake, by uniting itself with the Cano de Cam- 

 hury, on the road from the town of Nueva Va- 

 lencia to Guigue. The course of this river was 

 then from South to North. At the end of the 

 seventeenth century, the proprietor of a neigh- 

 bouring plantation thought proper to dig at the 

 back of the hill a new bed for the Rio Pao. 

 He turned the river ; and, after having employ- 

 ed part of the water for the irrigation of his 

 fields, he caused the rest to flow at a venture 

 toward the South, following the declivity of the 

 Llanos. In this new southern direction the Rio 

 Pao, mingled with three other rivers, the Tinaco, 

 the Guanarito, and the Chilua, falls into the 

 Portuguesa, which is a branch of the Apure. 

 It is a remarkable phenomenon, to observe, that 

 by a particular disposition of the ground, and 

 the lowering of the ridge of division toward the 

 South-West, the Rio Pao separates itself from 

 the little system of interior rivers, to which it 

 originally belonged, anol for a century past has 



