208 



the Trqxillo; namely, Montana de Santa Maria, west of Torito, 

 el Picacho tie Nirgua, el Altar, and the vicinity of Quibor, 

 Barquesimeto, and Tocuyo : 8th. the table-land of Truxillo 

 (above 420 toises) ; and the tierras frias of Paramos de las 

 Rosas, Bocono and Niquitao, between the sources of the Rio 

 Motatan, and those of the Portuguesa and the Guanare : 9th. 

 the whole mountainous land that surrounds the Sierra nevada 

 of Merida, between Pedraza, Laveliaca, Santo Domingo, 

 Macuchies, the Paramo de los Conejos, Bayladores, and La 

 Grita (700-1600 toises) : 10th. some spots, perhaps of the 

 Cordillera de Parime, which separates the basin of the Lower 

 Oroonoko from that of the Amazon ; the groupe of the gra- 

 nitic mountains of Sipapo and the Sierra Maraguaca*. 



Not having visited with Mr. Bonpland the cold region of 

 the province of Varinas, the declivity of the Sierra Nevada of 

 Merida, and the Paramos at the north of Truxillo, which, ac- 

 cording to the analogy of the observations I made in the 

 Andes of Pasto and Quito, must be 1700 and 2100 toises 

 high, 1 cannot judge of the extent of the vallies and table- 

 lands which the western regions of Venezuela may one day 

 furnish for the culture of the cerealia of Europe. It is not, as 

 we have observed above, the knowledge of the absolute 

 height of the peaks which can enlighten us respecting the 

 problems of agriculture. Where the spots lying beneath the 

 benign influence of a temperate or cold climate are on decli- 

 vities too steep to be easily ploughed, the price of native flour 

 would be too high to be brought into competition with the 

 flour of the United States, of Mexico, and Cundinamarca. 

 As in our Mediterranean, Italy and Greece have long drawn 

 their corn from the opposite coast of Mauritania and Egypt, 

 so also in the Mediterranean of America, Venezuela and the 

 shore of New Grenada now receive their supply of flour from 

 the opposite coast of the United States^. Don Manuel Torres, 



* Vol. v. p. 554, 555, 605, 606. 



+ Itinerary manuscripts of M. Palacio Faxardo. 



