in respect to its resources, the prolonged and harassing war has left behind it most melancholy memorials."

It has been regretted, and "perhaps justly," Hum. boldt says, that Valencia was not made the capital, instead of Caracas, under the colonial government. "Its situation in a plain, on the banks of a lake, recalls to mind the position of Mexico. When we reflect on the easy communication which the valleys of Aragua furnish with the Llanos and the rivers that flow into the Orinoco, and recognise the possibility of opening an inland navigation, by the Rio Pao and the Portuguesa, as far as the mouths of the Orinoco, the Cassiquiare, and the Amazons,-it will appear, that the capital of the vast provinces of Venezuela would have been better placed near the fine harbour of Puerto Cabello, beneath a pure and serene sky, than near the unsheltered road of La Guayra, in a temperate but constantly foggy valley. Situated near the kingdom of New Granada, and between the fertile corn-lands of La Victoria and Barquesimeto, the city of Valencia ought to have prospered; but, notwithstanding these advantages, it has been unable to maintain the contest with Caracas, which, during two centuries, has drawn away a great number of its inhabitants."

The advantages of the situation have one drawback, however, in the incredible number of ants which infest the spot where Valencia is placed. Their excavations resemble subterraneous canals, which, in the rainy season are filled with water, and become very dangerous to the buildings, by occasioning a sinking of the ground. To set against this, there is an opening (abra) in the cordillera of the coast, in the meridian of Valencia, by which a cooling sea-breeze penetrates into the valley every evening: the breeze rises regularly two or three hours after

sunset,

LAKE OF VALENCIA OR TACARIGUA.

The valleys of Aragua form a narrow basin, enclosed by granitic and calcareous mountains of unequal height. On the north, the Sierra Mariara separates this basin from the sea-coast; towards the south, the chain of Guacimo and Yusma serves as a rampart against the heated air of the steppes; while groupes of hills, high enough to determine the course of the waters, close this basin on the east and west, like transverse dikes. These hills occur between the Tuy and La Victoria, and on the road from Valencia to Nirgua. "From this extraordinary configuration of the land," says Humboldt, "the little rivers of the valleys of Aragua form a peculiar system, and, instead of bearing their waters to the ocean, are collected in an inland lake, where, subject to the powerful influence of evaporation, they lose themselves, if we may use the expression, in the atmosphere. On the existence of these rivers and the lake, the fertility of the soil, and the produce of cultivation in these valleys, depend. The aspect of the spot, and the experience of half a century prove, that the level of the waters is not invariable: the waste by evaporation, and the increase from the waters running into the lake, do not constantly balance each other. As the lake is 1,000 feet above the neighbouring steppes of Calabozo, and 1,332 feet above the level of the ocean, it has been suspected that there are subterranean communications and filtrations; and the appearance of new islands, occasioned by the gradual retreat of the waters, has led to the apprehension that the lake may one day become entirely dry.

"The Lake of Valencia, called by the Indians Tacarigua, excels in magnitude the Lake of Neufchatel in Switzerland, but, in its general form, has more resemblance to the Lake of Geneva, which is

nearly at the same height above the level of the sea. The slope of the ground in the valleys of Aragua, tends towards the S. and W.; that part of the basin, therefore, which has remained covered with water, is nearer the southern chain of mountains, those of Guigue, Yusma, and Guacimo, which stretch toward the high savannas of Ocumare. The opposite banks of the lake exhibit 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 adorned with the rich cultivation of the sugar-cane, the coffee-plant, and cotton. Paths bordered with cestrums, azedaracs, and other shrubs always in flower, cross the plain, and join the scattered farms. Every house is surrounded with clumps of trees. The ceiba-palm with its large yellow flowers, iningling its branches with those of the purple erithryna, gives a peculiar character to the landscape. This mixture of vivid vegetable colours contrasts with the uniform tint of an unclouded sky. In the season of drought, when 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 rocky masses rise abruptly in the midst of the valley, bare and forked, but nourishing a few succulent plants, which prepare mould for cultivation in future ages. Often, at the summit of these lonely hills, a fig-tree, or a clusia with its fleshy leaves, that has fixed its roots in the rock, 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: when the whole of the valley was filled with water, and the waves beat at the foot of the peaks of

Mariara, the Rincon del Diablo (devil's wall), and the cordillera of the coast, these rocky hills were shoals or islets.*

"According to astronomical observations, the length of the lake, in its present state, from Cagua to Guayos, is ten leagues, or 28,800 toises. Its breadth is very unequal, no where surpassing 6,500 toises: most commonly, it is but four or five miles across.† Oviedo, in his History of Venezuela, published in 1723, gives this inland sea' fourteen leagues in length and six in breadth. He states, that, at a small distance from the shore, the lead finds no bottom, and that large floating islands cover the surface of the waters, which are constantly agitated by the winds. No importance can be attached to estimates which, without being founded on any measurement, are expressed in leagues, reckoned in the colonies at 3,000, 5,000, and 6,650 varas. What is more worthy of attention, is the assertion of the same writer, that the town of Nueva Valencia d'el Rey was built, in 1555, at the distance of half a league from the lake,

* Pers. Narr. vol. iv. p. 130, &c. This contrast between the opposite shores of the lake, recalled that which is presented by the cultivated and fertile Pays de Vaud and the mountainous and half-desert country of Chablais, on the opposite side of the Lake of Geneva. But I do not imagine," says the learned Writer, "that I present the reader with clearer images or more precise ideas, by comparing our landscapes with those of the equinoctial regions. It cannot be too often repeated, that Nature under every zone, whether wild or cultivated, smiling or majectic, displays an individual character.

M. Depons, on" the concurrent testimony of" his "own eyes, and that of the intelligent Spaniards residing in the vicinity," makes it extend thirteen leagues and a half from E.N.E. to W.S.W., and its greatest breadth, he says, is four leagues. (vol. i. p. 74.)

The latter is the legua nautica (2854 toises), 20 in a degree. Cisneros, in 1787, makes the lake 18 leagues long and about six broad; and another Spanish writer assigns it 10 Castilian leagues, by 3 1-2 in breadth.

and that the proportion of the length of the lake to its breadth, was as seven to three. At present, the town of Valencia is separated from the lake by level ground of more than 2,700 toises, which Oviedo would doubtless have estimated as a league and a half, and the length of the lake is to its breadth as 10 to 2.3 or as 7 to 1.6. The appearance of the soil between Valencia and Guigue, the little hills that rise abruptly in the plain, some of which (as El Islote and La Isla de la Negra, or Caratapona) have even preserved the name of islands, sufficiently prove that the waters have retired considerably since the time of Oviedo. With respect to the change in the general form of the lake, it appears to me improbable that, in the seventeenth century, its breadth was nearly half its length. The situation of the granitic mountains of Mariara and Guigue, and the slope of the ground, which rises more rapidly toward the N. and S. than toward the E. and W., are alike repugnant to this supposition.

"I have no doubt," continues the learned Traveller, "that, in very remote times, the whole valley, from the foot of the mountains of Cocuyza to those of Torito and Nirgua, and from La Sierra de Mariara to the chain of Guigue, of Guacimo, and La Palma, was filled with water. Every where, the form of the promontories, and their steep declivities, seem to indicate the shore of an alpine lake, similar to those of Styria and Tyrol. The same little helicites, the same valvæ, which now live in the Lake of Valencia, are found, in layers of three or four feet, in the islands, as far as Turmero and La Concesion near La Victoria. These facts undoubtedly prove a retreat of the waters; but nothing indicates that this retreat has continued from that remote period to our days. The valleys of Aragua are one of the parts of Venezuela the most anciently peopled; and yet, there is no mention in Oviedo, or any other old chronicler, of a sensible