556 



of the depression of the basin is not in its 

 center, but on its southern limit, at the Si- 

 erra Pari in e, along which runs the thalweg of 

 the Oroonoko. It is only between the meri- 

 dians of Cape Codera and Cum an a, where a 

 great part of the Cordillera of the shore of 

 Venezuela has been destroyed, that the 

 waters of the Llanos (the Rio Unare and the 

 Rio Neveri) reach the northern coast. The 

 ridge of partition of this basin is formed by 

 small table-lands, known by the names of 

 Mesas d'Amana, Guanipa, and Jonoro. (Vol. 

 iv, p. 30; Vol. vi, p. 48.) In the eastern 

 part, between the meridians 68° and 66°, the 

 plains or savannahs pass, towards the south, 

 beyond the bed of the Oroonoko and the 

 I m at ac a, and form (in approaching the Cu- 

 juni and the Essequibo,) a kind of gulph 

 along the Sierra Pacaraina (Vol. v, p. 760; 

 Vol. vi, p. 504). 



2.) Part of the basin of Venezuela run- 

 ning from south to north. The great 

 breadth of this zone of savannahs, of from 100 

 to 120 leagues, renders the denomination of 

 land-strait somewhat improper, at least if 

 it be not geognostically applied to every 

 communication of basins bounded by high 

 Cordilleras. Perhaps this denomination ra- 

 ther belongs to that part where the groupe 



