The Eastern Summit Of The Silla Of Caracas, According To My Barometric Measurement Made In 1800, Is 1350 Toises High,

* (* The Silla of Caracas is only 80 toises lower than the Canigou in the Pyrenees.) and notwithstanding the commotion which

Took place on the Silla during the great earthquake of Caracas, that mountain did not sink 50 or 60 toises, as some North American journals asserted. Four or five leagues south of the northern chain (that of Mariara, La Silla and Cape Codera) the mountains of Guiripa, Ocumare and Panaquire form the southern chain of the coast, which stretches in a parallel direction from Guigue to the mouth of the Rio Tuy, by the Guesta of Yusma and the Guacimo. The latitudes of the Villa de Cura and San Juan, so erroneously marked on our maps, enabled me to ascertain the mean breadth of the whole Cordillera of Venezuela. Ten or twelve leagues may be reckoned as the distance from the descent of the northern chain which bounds the Caribbean Sea, to the descent of the southern chain bounding the immense basin of the Llanos. This latter chain, which also bears the name of the Inland Mountains, is much lower than the northern chain; and I can hardly believe that the Sierra de Guayraima attains the height of 1200 toises.

The two partial chains, that of the interior, and that which runs along the coast, are linked by a ridge or knot of mountains known by the names of Altos de las Cocuyzas (845 toises) and the Higuerote (835 toises between Los Teques and La Victoria) in longitude 69 degrees 30 minutes and 69 degrees 50 minutes. On the west of this ridge lies the enclosed basin* of the lake of Valencia or the Valles de Aragua (* This basin contains a small system of inland rivers which do not communicate with the ocean. The southern chain of the litteral Cordillera of Venezuela is so depressed on the south-west that the Rio Pao is separated from the tributary streams of the lake of Tacarigua or Valencia. Towards the east the Rio Tuy, which takes its rise on the western declivity of the knot of mountains of Las Cocuyzas, appears at first to empty itself into the valleys of Aragua; but hills of calcareous tufa, forming a ridge between Consejo and Victoria, force it to take its course south-east.); and on the east the basin of Caracas and of the Rio Tuy. The bottom of the first-mentioned basins is between 220 and 250 toises high; the bottom of the latter is 460 toises above the level of the Caribbean Sea. It follows from these measures that the most western of the two longitudinal valleys enclosed by the littoral Cordillera is the deepest; while in the plains near the Apure and the Orinoco the declivity is from west to east; but we must not forget that the peculiar disposition of the bottom of the two basins, which are bounded by two parallel chains, is a local phenomenon altogether separate from the causes on which the general structure of the country depends.

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