OHAHGEfi OF THE COAST. 
285 
Cape Paria, the whole mass of the mountains of the coast 
would have formed a narrow island, parallel to the island cf 
Santa Margareta, and four times as long. Not only do the 
inspection of the ground, and considerations deduced from 
its relievo, confirm these opinions ; hut a mere glance of the 
configuration of the coasts, and a geological map of the 
country, would suggest the same ideas. It would appear 
that the island of Margareta has been heretofore attached 
to the coast-chain of Araya by the peninsula of Chacopata 
and the Caribbee islands, Lobo and Coche, in the same 
manner as this chain is still connected with that of the 
Cocollar and Caripe by the ridge of Meapire. 
At present we perceive that the humid plains which 
stretch east and west of the ridge, and which are improperly 
called the valleys San Bonifacio and Cariaco, are enlarcino- 
by gaining on the sea. The waters are receding, and these 
changes of the shore are very remarkable, more particularly 
on the coast of Cumana. If the level of the soil seem to 
indicate that the two gulfs of Cariaco and Paria formerly 
occupied a much more considerable space, we cannot doubt 
that at present the land is progressively extending. Near 
Cumana, a battery, called La Boca, was built in 1791 on 
the very margin of the sea; in 1799 we saw it very far in- 
land. At the mouth of the Rio Neveri, near the Morro of 
Nueva Barcelona, the retreat of the waters is still more 
rapid. This local phenomenon is probably assignable to 
accumulations of sand, the progress of which has not yet 
been sufficiently examined. Descending the Sierra de Mea- 
pire, which forms the isthmus between the plains of San 
Bonifacio and Cariaco, we find towards the east the great 
lake of Putacuao, which communicates with the river Areo, 
and is four or five leagues in diameter. The mountainous 
lauds that surround this basin are known only to the natives. 
There are found those great boa serpents known to the 
Chayma Indians by the name of guainas, and to which they 
fabulously attribute a sting under the tail. Descending the 
Sierra de Meapire to the west, we find at first a hollow 
ground (tierra lnieca) which, during the great earthquakes 
of 1766, threw out asphaJtum enveloped in viscous petro- 
leum. Parther on, a numberless quantity of sulphureous 
