59 



displays itself in a very picturesque manner on 

 a range of hills covered with thick vegetation. 

 Scattered houses are surrounded with date- 

 trees, and seem to proclaim the easy circum- 

 stances of their inhabitants. A chain of low 

 mountains separates the little river Guayra 

 from the valley of La Pascua*, so much cele- 

 brated in the history of the country, and from 

 the ancient gold-mines of Baruta and Oripoto. 

 Ascending toward Carapa, we enjoy once more 

 the sight of the Silla, which appears like an 

 immense dome with a cliff toward the sea. This 

 rounded summit, and the ridge of Galipano 

 crenated like a wall, are the only objects, that 

 in this basin of gneiss and mica-slate impress 

 a character on the landscape. The other moun- 

 tains are of a uniform and dull monotonous 

 aspect. 



A little before reaching the village of Anti- 

 mano, we find on the right a very curious geo- 

 logical phenomenon. In hollowing the new road 

 out of the rock, two large veins of gneiss were 

 discovered in the mica-slate. They are nearly 



* Valley of Cortes, or Easter Valley, so called because 

 Diego de Losada, after having defeated the Teques Indians, 

 and their cacique Guaycapuro, in the mountains of San 

 Pedro, spent his Easter there in 1567, before entering the 

 valley of San Francisco, where he founded the city of 

 Caraccas. (Oviedo, p. 252.) 



