248 



I shall exhibit in one view, to close this chapter, 

 the notions I have been able to acquire respect- 

 ing the quality of the soil, and the metallic riches 

 of the districts of Aroa, of Barquesiineto, and of 

 Carora. 



From the Sierra Nevada of Merida, and the 

 Paramos of Niquitao, Bocono, and Las Rosas *<, 

 * which contain the valuable bark-tree, the eastern 

 Cordillera of New Grenada-}- decreases in height 

 so rapidly, that between the ninth and tenth 

 degrees of latitude it forms only a chain of little 

 mountains, which, stretching to the North-East 

 by the Altar and Torito, separates the rivers 

 that join the Apure and the Oroonoko from 

 those numerous rivers that flow either into the 



* Many travellers, who were monks, have asserted, that 

 the little Paramo de Las Rosas, the height of which appears 

 to be more than 1,600 toises, is covered with rosemary, and 

 the red and white roses of Europe, that grow wild there. 

 These roses are gathered to decorate the altars in the neigh- 

 bouring villages, on the festivals of the church. By what 

 accident has our rosa centifolia become wild in this country, 

 while we no where found it in the Andes of Quito and Peru ? 

 Is it really the rose-tree of our garden ? See above, vol. iii ? 

 p. 487. 



+ The bark exported from the port of Maracaybo does not 

 come from the territory of Venezuela, but from the mountains 

 of Pamplona in New Grenada, being brought down the Rio 

 de San Faustino, that flows into the lake of Maracaybo. 

 (Pombo, Noticias stbre las Quinas, 1814, p. 65.) Some k> 

 collected near Merida, in the ravine of Viscucucuy. 



