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PUBLIC EDIFICES A5 D STBl’CTUTtF.8. 
thorn any aromatic or extractive matter. The water of the 
valley does not contain lime, but a little more carbonic acid 
than the water of the Anauco. The new bridge over this 
river is a handsome structure. Caracas contains eight 
churches, five convents, and a theatre capable of holding 
fifteen or eighteen hundred persons. When I was there, the 
pit, in which the seats of the men are apart from those of the 
women, was uncovered. By this means the spectators could 
either look at the actors or gaze at the stars. As the misiy 
weather made me lose a great many observations of Jupiter’s 
satellites, I was able to ascertain, as 1 sat in a box in the 
theatre, whether the planet would be visible that night. The 
streets of Caracas are wide and straight, and they cross each 
other at right angles, as in all the towns built by the 
Spaniards in America. The houses are spacious, and higher 
than they ought to be in a country subject to earthquakes. 
In 1800, the two squares of Alta Gracia and San Francisco 
presented a very agreeable aspect ; I say in the year 1800, 
because the terrible shocks of the 26th of March, 1812, 
almost destroyed the whole city, which is only now slowly 
rising from its ruins. The quarter of Trinidad, in which I 
resided, was destroyed as completely as if a mine had been 
sprung beneath it. 
The small extent of the valley, and the proximity of the 
high mountains of Avila and the Silla, give a gloomy and 
stern character to the scenery of Caracas ; particularly in 
that part of the year when the coolest temperature prevails, 
viz., in the months of November and December. The morn- 
ings are then very fine ; and on a clear and serene sky we 
could perceive the two domes or rounded pyramids of the 
Silla, and the craggy ridge of the Cerro de Avila. But 
towards evening the atmosphere thickens ; the mountains are 
overhung with clouds ; streams of vapour cling to their ever- 
green slopes, and seem to divide them into zones one above 
another. These zones are gradually blended together ; the 
cold air which descends from the Silla, accumulates in the 
valley, and condenses the light vapours into large fleecy 
clouds. These often descend below the Cross of La Guayra, 
and advance, gliding on the soil, in the direction of the Pastora 
of Magellan, that water is much praised which comes in contact with the 
roots of the Canella winterana. 
