153 



t&nnot be denied, particularly by having re- 

 course to tunnels, or subterranean canals. The 

 progressive retreat of the waters has given birth 

 to the beautiful and luxuriant plains of Mara- 

 cay, Cura, Mocundo, Guigue, and Santa Cruz 

 del Escoval, planted with tobacco, sugar-canes, 

 coffee, indigo, and cacao ; but how can it be 

 doubted for a moment, that the lake alone 

 spreads fertility over this country? Deprived 

 of an enormous mass of vapours, which the sur- 

 face of the waters sends forth daily into the 

 atmosphere, the valleys of Aragua would become 



between the valleys of Aragua and the Llanos, lowers so 

 much toward the West of Guigue, as we have aa'cady 

 observed, that there are ravines, which conduct the wa- 

 ters of the Cano de Cambury, the Rio Valencia, and the 

 Guataparo, in the time of floods, to the Rio Pao ; but it 

 would be easier to open a navigable canal from the lake of 

 Valencia to the Oroonoko, by the Pao, the Portuguesa, 

 and the Apure, than to dig a draining canal level with the 

 bottom of the lake. This bottom, according to the sounding, 

 and my barometric measurements, is 40 toises less than 222, 

 or 182 above the surface of the ocean. On the road from 

 Guigue to the Llanos, by the table-land of La Villa de 

 Cura, I found, to the South of the dividing ridge, and on it's 

 southern declivity, no point of level corresponding to the 182 

 toises, except near San Juan. The absolute height of this 

 village is 194 toises. But, I repeat, that farther toward 

 the West, in the country between the Cano de Cambury 

 and the sources of the Rio Pao, which I was not able 

 to visit, the point of level of the bottom of the lake is much 

 more toward the North. 



