487 



Quibor to the lofty savannahs of London, near 

 Santa Rosa. The waters flow on the north, 

 towards the Golfo triste of the Caribbean Sea ; 

 and on the south, towards the basins of the 

 Apure and the Oroonoko. The whole of this 

 mountainous country which we have just made 

 known, and by which the chain of the shore of 

 Caraccas is linked to the Cordilleras of Cundi- 

 namarca, enjoyed some celebrity in Europe % 

 in the middle of the nineteenth century ; for 

 that part of this territory, formed of gneiss- 

 granite, and lying between the Rio Tocuyo and 

 the Rio Yaracui, furnishes auriferous veins of 

 Buria, and the copper-mine of Aroa, which is 

 still worked in our days. If, across the knot of 

 the mountains of Barquisimeto, we trace the 

 meridians of Aroa, Nirgua, and San Carlos, 

 which are so near each other, we observe>that the 

 N. W. of that knot is linked with the Sierra de 

 Coro, called also Sierra de Santa Lucia, and on 

 the N. E. with the mountains of Capadare, 

 Porto Cabello, and the Villa de Cura. It may 

 be said to form the eastern wall of that vast 

 circular depression of which the lake Maracay- 

 bo is the center, and which is bounded x>n the 

 south and west, by the mountains of Merida, 

 Ocana, Perija, and Santa Marta. 



The chain of the shore of Venezuela, of which 



* Vol. iii, p. 528. 



