VALLEY 01' LA PASCUA. 
474- 
distanees, but by tlie peculiar interest attached to the 
regions he may traverse. This powerful motive led us to 
the mountains of Los Teques, to the hot springs of Mariara, 
to the fertile banks of the lake of Valencia, and through 
the immense savannahs of Calabozo to San Fernando de 
Apure, in the eastern part of the province of Varinas. 
Having determined on this roxite, our first direction was 
westward, then southward, and finally to east-south-east, 
so that we might enter the Orinoco by the Apure in 
latitude 7° 36' 23". 
On the day on which we quitted the capital of Venezuela, 
we reached the foot of the woody mountains which close 
the valley on the south-west. There we halted for the 
night, and on the following day we proceeded along the 
right bank of the Eio Guayra as far as the village of Anti- 
mano, by a very fine road, partly scooped out of the rock. 
\\ r e passed by La Vega and Carapa. The church of La 
Vega rises very picturesquely above a range of hills covered 
with thick vegetation. Scattered houses surrounded with 
date-trees seem to denote the comfort of their inhabitants. 
A chain of low mountains separates the little river Guayra 
from the valley of La Pascua* (so celebrated in the history 
of the country), and from the ancient gold-mines of Baruta 
and Oripoto. Ascending in the direction of Carapa, wo 
enjoy once more the sight of the Silla, which appears like an f 
immense dome with a cliff on the side next the sea. This 
rounded summit, and the ridge of Galipano crenated like a 
wall, are the only objects which in this basin of gneiss and 
mica-slate impress a peculiar character on the landscape. 
The other mountains have a uniform and monotonous 
aspect. 
A little before reaching the village of Antimano we 
observed on the right a very curious geological phenomenon. 
In hollowing the new road out of the rock, two large veins 
of gneiss were discovered in the mica-slate. They are nearly 
perpendicular, intersecting all the mica-slate strata, and are 
* Valley of Cortes, or Easter Valley, so called because Diego de 
Losada, after having defeated the Teques Indians, and their cacique 
Guaycaypuro, in the mountains of San Pedro, spent the Easter there in 
15C7, before entering the valley of San Francisco. In the latter piece he 
founded the city of Caracas. 
