and the gradual retreat of the waters, have led to the belief that the lake may perhaps become entirely dry.

The slope of the ground in the valleys of Aragua tending toward the south and the west, that part of the basin which has remained covered with water, is the nearest to the southern chain of the mountains of Guigue, of Yusma, and of Guacimo, which stretch toward the high savannahs of Ocumare.

The opposite banks of the Lake of Valencia display a singular contrast. Those on the south are desert, and almost uninhabited, and a screen of high mountains gives them a gloomy and monotonous aspect. The northern shore, on the contrary, is cheerful, pastoral, and decked with the rich cultivation of the sugar-cane, coffee tree, and cotton.

It is on this cultivated shore that we see paths, bordered with cestrums, azedaracs, and other shrubs, always in flower, cross the plain, and join the scattered farms. Every house is surrounded by clumps of trees. The ceiba, with its large yellow flowers, gives a peculiar character to the landscape, mingling its branches with those of the purple erithryna. This mixture of vivid vegetable colours contrasts with the uniform tint of an unclouded sky. In the season of drought, where the burning soil is covered with an undulating vapour, artificial irrigations preserve the verdure and fertility.

Here and there the granitic rock pierces through the cultivated ground. Enormous stony masses rise abruptly in the midst of the valley. Bare and forked, they nourish a few succulent plants, which prepare mould for future ages. Often at the summit of these lonely hills, a fig-tree, or a clusia with fleshy leaves, has fixed its roots in the rock, and towers over the landscape. With their dead and withered branches, they look like signals erected on a steep cliff. The form of these mounts betrays the secret of their ancient origin; for when the whole of this valley was filled with water, and the waves beat at the foot of the peaks of Mariara, the Devil's Wall, and the chain of the coast, these rocky hills were shoals or islets.

The Lake of Valencia is full of islands, which embellish the scenery by the picturesque form of their rocks, and the appearance of the vegetation with which they are covered. The islands are fifteen in number, distributed in three groups; no longer reckoning Morro and Cabrera, which are already joined to the shore. They are partly cultivated, and extremely fertile, on account of the vapours that rise from the lake. Burro, the largest of these islands, is two miles in length; and even inhabited by some families of Mestizoes, who rear goats.

The lake is in general well stocked with fish, though it furnishes only three kinds, the flesh

of which is soft and insipid-the guavina, the vagra, and the sardina.

The environs of the lake are unhealthful only in times of great drought, when the waters, in their retreat, leave a muddy sediment exposed to the ardour of the sun. The banks, shaded by turfs of coccoloba barbadensis, and decorated with fine lilaceous plants, remind us, by the appearance of the aquatic vegetation, of the marshy shores of our lakes in Europe.

The inhabitants of the valleys of Aragua often inquire, why the southern shore of the lake, particularly the south-west part towards Aguacates, is generally more shaded, and of fresher verdure, than the northern side? In the month of February, many trees were seen stripped of their foliage, near the Hacienda de Cura, at Mocundo, and at Guacara.; while to the south-east of Valencia every thing presaged the approach of the rains. Humboldt believes, that in the early part of the year, when the sun has a southern declination, the hills that surround Valencia, Guacara, and Cura, are scorched by the ardour of the solar rays; while the southern shore receives with the breeze, when it enters the valley by the Abra de Porto Cabello, an air that has crossed the lake, and is loaded with aqueous vapour. On this southern shore, near Guaruto, the finest plantations of tobacco in the whole province are found.

3. The Lake of Parima, or Paranapitinca, in Guiana, is said to be an oblong sheet of water, 100 miles in length and 50 broad, in an island of which is a rock of glittering mica, celebrated as having been the seat of El Dorado, a supposititious city, the streets of which were paved with gold. This lake is described as being in 3° 40′ north latitude, and 45° 20′ west longitude, and gives birth to a large river, called Rio Blanco.

SECTION VIII.

ITS RIVERS.

In the mountains already described, the Cauca and the Magdalena, the Meta and the Orinoco, have their sources. Every part of this country is indeed so abundant in rivers, that it is diffi cult to find any other equally blessed with the means of fertilizing the soil. Every valley has its rivers, large or small; and if they have not a sufficient quantity of water to make them navigable, yet they have more than enough to afford a copious supply to a hundred times the number of their present plantations.

In Caracas, in particular, all those rivers which wind their course from the northern declivity of the chain of mountains, are dis

charged into the sea, and run from south to north; whilst those which spring from the southern declivity of these same mountains, traverse, in a southern direction, the whole extent of the intermediate plain, till they augment with their tributary streams that of the majestic Orinoco. The former are generally so strongly fenced in by the natural barriers of their banks, and so happily favoured in their progress by the declivity of their channels, as seldom to overflow; and when they do, their overflowings are neither long nor detrimental. The latter having their courses through smoother grounds, and in shallower beds, mingle their waters during a great part of the year, and resemble rather a sea than rivers which have overflowed their banks.

The Orinoco is not only amongst the largest, but the finest of South American rivers, and is chiefly distinguished by its very singular and intricate course. Its sources are not well known, but according to La Cruz, it rises in a small lake called Ipava, in 5° 5' north latitude. Thence, winding upon itself, it enters the lake of Parima to the south-east, and issues by two outlets towards the north and south. On the western shores of the lake, receiving the Guaviara, it bends north, then north-east, and embracing the Meta, the Apura, the Arauca, and other large streams, with thousands of smaller ones, falls into the Atlantic Ocean, by.