496 
TOWN OE VICTORIA. 
the surface of France yields on an average only five or su for 
one, or from one thousand to twelve hundred pounds per 
acre. Notwithstanding this fecundity of the soil, and this 
happy influence of the climate, the culture of the sugar-cane 
is more productive in the valleys of Aragua than that of 
corn. 
La Victoria is traversed by the little river Calanchas, 
running, not into the Tuy, but into the liio Aragua: it 
thenco results that this fine country, producing at once 
sugar and corn, belongs to the basin of the lake of Valen- 
cia, to a system of interior rivers not eominunicatiim with 
tne sea. The quarter of the town west of the Eio Calan- 
chas is called la oiva btindu ; it is the most commercial 
part; merchandize is even' where exhibited, and ranges of 
shops form the streets. Two commercial roads pass through 
La Victoria, that of Valencia, or of Porto Cabello, and the 
road of Villa de Cura, or of the plains, called camino de los 
Llanos. We here find more whites in proportion than at 
Caracas We visited at sunset the little hill of Calvary 
where the view is extremely fine and extensive. We dis- 
cover on the west the lovely valleys of Aragua, a vast 
space covered with gardens, cultivated fields, clumps of wild 
trees, farms, and hamlets. Turning south and south-east, 
we see,, extending as far as the eye can reach, the lofty 
mountains of La Palma, Guayraima, Tiara, and Guiripa, 
which conceal the immense plains or steppes of Calabozo! 
This interior chain stretches westward along the lake of 
\ alencia, towards the Villa de Cura, the Cuesta de Yusma, 
and the denticulated mountains of Guigne. It is very 
steep, and constantly covered with that light vapour which 
in hot climates gives a vivid blue tint to distant objects, 
and, far from concealing their outlines, marks them the' 
more strongly. It is believed that among the mountains of 
the interior chain, that of Guayraima reaches an elevation 
of twelve Hundred toises. I found in the night of the 
eleventh of February the latitude of La Victoria 10° 13' So- 
othe magnetic dip 40-8°, the intensity of the forces equal to 
236 oscillations in ten minutes of time, and the variation of 
the needle 4-4° north-east. 
We proceeded slowly on our way by the wllagcs of San 
Mateo, Tunnero, and Mnracay, to the Hacienda de Cura, a 
