partly from a too great confidence in the prolific nature of the soil.

On the plains of Venezuela the RAINY SEASON commences in April, and continues till November. The rains fall oftener in the morning than in the evening, and on an average occupy three hours of each day. During this period, the plains nearest the rivers are converted into lakes of immense extent.

The LAKES, properly so called, of Venezuela are not numerous, for we can hardly give that appellation to the sheets of water produced by the periodical swell of the Orinoco, or by the rains, and which are generally without any depth. The Lake of Valencia has been already described.

The RIVERS of Venezuela are more numerous than in any other part of Spanish America. Every valley has its stream; and though many of them are not of sufficient size to be navigable, yet all afford ample supplies of water to irrigate the plantations on their banks.

The principal of these which run from the mountains of Caracas and Coro into the Caribbean Sea, are the Guiges, Tocuyo, Aroa, Yaracuy, and the Tuy.-The Guiges falls into that sea sixteen leagues west of the city of Coro. The Tocuyo discharges its waters twenty-five leagues east of the Guiges, or Gaigues its source is fifteen leagues south of the town of Carora, at the distance of nearly

one hundred miles from the ocean; and it is navigable as far as the village of Banagua, at the distance of forty leagues from its mouth; its banks furnishing abundance of timber of the largest size, and fit for every kind of building. The Aroa rises in the mountains west of the town of St Felipe, and enters the ocean. near Burburata Bay. The Yaracuy enters the Caribbean Sea near the latter. The Tuy discharges itself into the sea thirty leagues east of La Guayra: it rises in the mountains of St Pedro, ten leagues from the capital, and being joined by the Guayra becomes navigable, and serves to transport the produce of the cultivated plains or valleys of Aragoa, Tacata, Cua, Sabana, Ocumare, Santa Lucia, and Santa Teresa, through which it passes, and which particularly abound in cacao of the best quality.

The following are the more important rivers which rise on the southern side of the chain, and flow to the Orinoco.-The Guarico, which receives some of the branches of the Apure, and then following a course parallel to that river, enters the Orinoco a short distance eastward of it: it is joined near its confluence with the Orinoco by the Rio Mancapra, which flows through the plains of Calabozo. The Portuguesa, which is formed by the union of the two rivers Pao and Barquisimeto, flows through the greater part of Venezuela, and

joins the Apure forty miles north-west of its

mouth.

In 1801 the population of Venezuela, including Varinas, amounted to 500,000 persons.

SECTION II.

CITY OF CARACAS AND LA GUAYRA.

HERE perhaps Caracas should be described before its port; but by inverting that order, we may the more easily profit by the excellent narrative of Humboldt in his journey from La Guayra to Caracas, which on this subject is our best authority.

The latitude of La Guayra is 10° 36′ 19′′, and the longitude 69° 26′ 13′′.

The situation of this port is very singular, and can be compared only to that of Santa Cruz in Teneriffe. The chain of mountains which separates the port from the high valley of Caracas, descends almost directly into the sea; and the houses of the town are backed by a wall of steep rocks. Hence the stones which fall from the mountain tops frequently occasion serious damage. The town has no visual horizon, except what the sea forms on the north; and there scarcely remains one hundred or one hundred and forty toises breadth of flat

ground between the wall of rock and the ocean. The town contains only two streets, running parallel to each other, east and west; and it has six or eight thousand inhabitants.

The order and division of the town of Guayra partake of the inequalities of the place where it is situate. The streets are narrow, badly paved, not on a line, and the houses meanly built. There is nothing regular or curious, but the batteries which defend it. the battery of Cerro-colorado it is commanded; and its fortifications along the sea-side are well disposed, and kept in repair.

By

The whole aspect of this place has something solitary and gloomy. We seem not to be on a continent covered with vast forests, but in a rocky island destitute of mould and vegetation. With the exception of Cape Blanco and the cocoa-trees of Maiquetia, no view meets the eye but that of the horizon, the sea, and the azure vault of heaven.

The heat is here stifling during the day, and most frequently during the night. The climate is justly considered more ardent than that of Cumana, Porto Cabello, and Coro, because the sea breeze is less felt, and the air is heated by the radiant caloric, which the perpendicular rocks emit from the time the sun sets. We should, however, judge amiss of the atmospheric constitution of this spot, and of all the

neighbouring shore, if we compared only the temperatures indicated by the degrees of the thermometer. A stagnant air ingulfed in a hollow of the mountains, in contact with a mass of barren rocks, acts differently on our organs from air equally hot in an open country.

The examination of the thermometric observations made during nine months at La Guayra by a distinguished physician, enabled Humboldt to compare the climate of this port, and that of Cumana, the Havannah, and Vera Cruz. This comparison is the more interesting, as it furnishes an inexhaustible subject of conversation in the Spanish colonies, and among the mariners who frequent those latitudes. nothing is more deceitful in this matter than the testimony of the senses, we can judge of the difference of climates only by numerical calculations.

As

"The four places of which we have been speaking, says that traveller, are considered as the hottest on the shores of the New World. A comparison of them may serve to show, that it is generally the duration of a high tempera

* We could add to this small number, Coro, Carthagena, Omoa, Campeachy, Guayaquil, and Acapulco. Humboldt's comparisons are founded, for Cumana, on his own observations, and those of Don Faustin Rubio; and for Vera Cruz, and the Havannah, on the observations of Don Bernardo de Orta, and Don Joaquin Ferrer.