TEMPERATURE OF CARACAS. 
387 
the road of St. Gothard, and of the Great St. Bernard, 
taking the .erel of the road had never been attempted be- 
tore my arrival in the province of Venezuela. No precise 
idea had even been forifted of the elevation of the valley of 
Caracas. It had indeed been long observed, that the 
descent was much less from La Cumbre and Las Vueltas 
(the latter is the culminating point of the road towards the 
lastora at the entrance of the valley of Caracas), than to- 
wards the port of La Guayra ; but the mountain of Avila 
having a very considerable bulk, the eye cannot discern 
simultaneously the points to be compared. It is even im- 
possible to form a precise idea of the elevation of Caracas 
from the climate of the valley, where the atmosphere is 
cooled by the descending currents of air, and by the mists 
which envelope the lofty summit of the Silla durum a «reat 
part of the year. ° b 
When 111 the season of the great heats we breathe the 
burning atmosphere of La Guayra, and turn our eyes towards 
the mountains, it seems scarcely possiblo that, at the dis- 
tance of five or six thousand toises, a population of forty 
thousand individuals assembled in a narrow valley, enjoys 
the coolness of spring, a temperature which at night des- 
eends to 12 ° oi the centesimal thermometer. This near 
approach of different climates is common in the Cordillera 
of the Andes ; but everywhere, at Mexico, at Quito in 
Beru, and in New Granada, it is only after a long journey 
into the interior, either across plains or along rivers, that we 
reach the great cities, which are the central points of civi- 
lization. The height of Caracas is but a third of that of 
Mexico, Quito, and Santa Be de Bogota; yet of all the 
capitals of Spanish America which enjoy a cool and deli- 
cious climate in the midst of the torrid zone, Caracas is 
nearest to the coast. What a privilege for a city to possess 
a seaport at three leagues distance, and to be situated 
among mountains, on a table-land, which would produce 
wheat, if the cultivation of the coffee-tree were not preferred ! 
I he road from La Guayra to the valley of Caracas is infi- 
nitely finer than the road from Honda to Santa Fe, or that 
rom Guayaquil to Quito. It is kept in better order than 
tne old road, which led from the port of Vera Cruz to 
erote, on the eastern declivity of the mountains of New 
