<34 
C0EH1LLEEA OF THE COAST. 
the quality of tlie soil and the metallic riches of the districts 
of Aroa, of Barquesimeto, and of Carora. 
From tne Sierra Nevada of Merida, and the paramos of 
Niquitao, Bocono, and Las Eosas, # which contain the valu- 
able bark-tree, the eastern Cordillera of New Grranadat 
decreases in height so rapidly, that, between the ninth and 
tenth degrees of latitude, it forms only a chain of little 
mountains, which, stretching to the north-east by the Altar 
and Torito, separates the rivers that join the Apure and 
the Orinoco from those numerous rivers that flow either 
into the Caribbean Sea or the lake of Maracaybo. On this 
dividing ridge are built the towns of Nirgua, San Felipe 
el F uerte, Barquesimeto, and Tocuyo. The first three are 
in a very hot climate; but Tocuyo enjoys great coolness, 
and we heard with surprise, that, beneath so fine a sky, the 
inhabitants have a strong propensity to suicide. The 
ground rises towards the south ; for Truxillo, the lake of 
Urao, from which carbonate of soda is extracted, and La 
Orita, all to tlie east of the Cordillera, though no farther 
distant, are four or five hundred toises high. 
On examining the law which the primitive strata of the 
Cordillera of the coast follow in their dip, we believe we 
recognize one of the causes of the extreme humidity of the 
land bounded by this Cordillera and the ocean. The dip of 
the strata is most frequently to the north-west ; so that the 
waters How in that direction on the ledges of rock ; and 
form, as we have stated above, that multitude of torrents 
and rivers, tlie inundations of which become so fatal to the 
* Many travellers, who were monks, have asserted that the little 
Paramo de Las Rosas, the height of which appears to be more than 
1,600 toises, is covered with rosemary, and the red and white roses of 
Europe grow wild there. These roses are gathered to decorate the altars 
in the neighbouring villages on the festivals of the church. By what 
accident has our Rosa centifolia become wild in this country, while we 
nowhere found it in the Andes of Quito and Peru ? Can it really be the 
rose-tree of our garden ? 
+ The bark exported from the port of Maracaybo does not come from 
the territory of Venezuela, but from the mountains of Pamplona in New 
Grenada, being brought down the .’Rio de San Faustiiio, that flows into 
the lake of Maracaybo. (Pom(x\ Noticias sobre las Quinas, 1814, 
,p. 65.) Some is collected near Melida, in the ravine of Viscucucuy. 
