62 
WANDERINGS IN VENEZUELA. 
(Illustrated by the Lantern). 
By F. G. PERCIVAL, B.Sc., F.G.S. Feb. 22nd, 1916. 
The lecturer visited Venezuela in the spring of 1910 as one 
of a scientific party, sent out from England for the purpose 
of investigating the oil and petroleum supplies. Their mis- 
sion 4 often took them away from the comparatively civilised 
coast regions into the lesser known parts of Venezuela, for 
the country contains great contrasts and one day’s journey 
may separate a region almost up-to-date in its modernity 
from one which reproduces all the crudities and inconven- 
iences of our middle ages. The party travelled via the Azores, 
Barbadoes, and Trindad, in which latter island some research 
was carried out in the southern part during an enforced 
quarantine of a month. In order to finish the journey a 
boat had to be chartered from Trinidad to Venezuela. 
The visitor makes his first acquainance with the country at 
La Guaira, built on a steep hillside by the sea ; it is the port 
for Caracas with which it is connected by a railway. The 
coast range that intervenes between La Guaira and Caracas 
makes the journey extremely interesting, but the engineering 
difficulties encountered reduce the efficiency of the line very 
considerably for the loads must needs be small and the cost 
of transit high. This is characteristic of the whole district, the 
rocks arc steep, twisted and contorted, and the gorges con- 
stitute formidable obstacles to both rail and road. The 
route from Caracas via Valencia to Puerto Cabello is similarly 
difficult— -at one point it is so steep as to necessitate a rack- 
rail. La Guaira has a reputation for its heat, yet Macuto, 
a few miles along the coast, has cooling breezes which render 
it the Brighton of Venezuela ; this is probably to be explained 
by the break in the hills behind Macuto. Caracas, the capital 
of the country, has, owing to its altitude, a much more toler- 
able climate and may be likened, in its life and its appear- 
ance, to a southern European city. 
