249 



Caribbean sea or the lake of Maracaybo*. On 

 this dividing ridge are built the towns of Nirgua^ 

 San Felipe el Fuerte, Barquesimeto, and Tocuyo. 

 The first three are in a very hot climate ; but 

 Tocuyo enjoys great coolness, and we heard 

 with surprise, that, beneath so fine a sky, the 

 inhabitants have a strong propensity to suicide. 

 The ground rises toward the South ; for Truxillo, 

 the lake of Urao, from which carbonat of soda 

 is extracted, and La Grita, all to the East of 

 the Cordillera, though no farther distant are 

 four or five hundred toises high *f\ 



On examining the law, which the primitive 

 strata of the Cordillera of the coast follow in 

 their dip, we believe we recognize one of the 

 causes of the extreme humidity of the land 

 bounded by this Cordillera and the ocean. The 

 dip of the strata is most frequently to the North- 

 West ; so that the waters flow in that direction 

 on the ledges of the rock ; and form, as we have 

 stated above, that multitude of torrents and 

 rivers, the inundations of which become so fatal 

 to the health of the inhabitants, from Cape 

 Codera as far as the lake of Maracaybo. 



Among the rivers that descend North-East 

 toward the coast of Porto-Cabello, and La 



* See ch. xiii, vol. iii, p. 495 and 528. 



+ The town of Pamplona, more toward the South- West, is 

 elevated, according to Mr. Caldas, 1255 toises above the level 

 of the ocean. 



