108 



Valencia, toward the Villa de Cura, the Cues.ta 

 de Yusma, and the denticulated mountains of 

 Guigue. It is very steep, and constantly co- 

 vered with that light vapour, which in hot 

 climates gives a vivid blue tint to distant objects, 

 and, far from concealing their outlines, renders 

 them more strongly marked. It is believed, 

 that among the mountains of the interior chain, 

 that of Guayraima reaches an elevation of twelve 

 hundred toises. I found in the night of the 

 eleventh of February, the latitude of La Victoria 

 10° 13' 35", the magnetic dip 40'8°, the inten- 

 sity of the forces equal to 236 oscillations in 

 10' of time *, and the variation of the needle 

 4*4° to the North-East. 



We proceeded slowly on our way by the 

 villages of San Matheo, Turmero, and Maracay 5 

 to the Hacienda de Cura, a fine plantation be- 

 longing to Count Tovar, where we did not 

 arrive till the fourteenth of February, in the 

 evening. The valley, which gradually widens, 

 is bordered with hills of calcareous tufa, called 



* The intensities of the magnetic force at La Guayra, at 

 La Venta Grande, between La Guayra and Caraccas, and 

 at La Victoria, including from 234 to 236 oscillations, are 

 the greatest I observed in Terra Firma. In this zone, where 

 the dip is generally from 40° to 43°, the mean intensity of 

 the forces corresponds to 226 or 228 oscillations. These 

 augmentations depend no doubt on some local cause, in the 

 neighbouring gneiss, mica-slate, and granite. 



