The Observations Of Latitude I Made At The Villa De Cura (10 Degrees 2 Minutes 47 Seconds), The Farm Of

Cocollar (10 degrees 9 minutes 37 seconds) and the convent of Caripe (10 degrees 10 minutes 14 seconds), compared with

The more anciently known position of the south coast of Trinidad (latitude 10 degrees 6 minutes), prove that the southern chain, south of the basins of Valencia and of Tuy* (* The bottom of the first of these four basins bounded by parallel chains is from 230 to 460 toises above, and that of the two latter from 30 to 40 toises below the present sea-level. Hot springs gush from the bottom of the gulf of the basin of Cariaco, as from the bottom of the basin of Valencia on the continent.) and of the gulfs of Cariaco and Paria, is still more uniform in the direction from west to east than the northern chain from Porto Cabello to Punta Galera. It is highly important to know the southern limit of the littoral Cordillera of Venezuela because it determines the parallel at which the Llanos or the savannahs of Caracas, Barcelona and Cumana begin. On some well-known maps we find erroneously marked between the meridians of Caracas and Cumana two Cordilleras stretching from north to south, as far as latitude 8 3/4 degrees, under the names of Cerros de Alta Gracia and del Bergantin, thus describing as mountainous a territory of 25 leagues broad, where we should seek in vain a hillock of a few feet in height.

Turning to the island of Marguerita, composed, like the peninsula of Araya, of micaceous slate, and anciently linked with that peninsula by the Morro de Chacopata and the islands of Coche and Cubagua, we seem to recognize in the two mountainous groups of Macanao and La Vega de San Juan traces of a third coast-chain of the Cordillera of Venezuela. Do these two groups of Marguerita, of which the most westerly is above 600 toises high, belong to a submarine chain stretching by the isle of Tortuga, towards the Sierra de Santa Lucia de Coro, on the parallel of 11 degrees? Must we admit that in latitude 11 1/4 and 12 1/2 degrees a fourth chain, the most northerly of all, formerly stretched out in the direction of the island of Hermanos, by Blanquilla, Los Roques, Orchila, Aves, Buen Ayre, Curacao and Oruba, towards Cape Chichivacoa? These important problems can only be solved when the chain of islands parallel with the coast has been properly examined. It must not be forgotten that a great irruption of the ocean appears to have taken place between Trinidad and Grenada,* and that no where else in the long series of the Lesser Antilles are two neighbouring islands so far removed from each other. (* It is affirmed that the island of Trinidad is traversed in the northern part by a chain of primitive slate, and that Grenada furnishes basalt. It would be important to examine of what rock the island of Tobago is composed; it appeared to me of dazzling whiteness; and on what point, in going from Trinidad northward, the trachytic and trappean system of the Lesser Antilles begins.) We observe the effect of the rotatory current in the direction of the coast of Trinidad, as in the coasts of the provinces of Cumana and Caracas, between Cape Paria and Punta Araya and between Cape Codera and Porto Cabello. If a part of the continent has been overwhelmed by the ocean on the north of the peninsula of Araya it is probable that the enormous shoal which surrounds Cubagua, Coche the island of Marguerita, Los Frailes, La Sola and the Testigos marks the extent and outline of the submerged land. This shoal or placer, which is of the extent of 200 square leagues, is well known only to the tribe of the Guayqueries; it is frequented by these Indians on account of its abundant fishery in calm weather. The Gran Placer is believed to be separated only by some canals or deep furrows of the bank of Grenada from the sand-bank that extends like a narrow dyke from Tobago to Grenada, and which is known by the lowering of the temperature of the water and from the sand-banks of Los Roques and Aves. The Guayquerie Indians and, generally speaking, all the inhabitants of the coast of Cumana and Barcelona, are imbued with an idea that the water of the shoals of Marguerita and the Testigos diminishes from year to year; they believe that, in the lapse of ages, the Morro do Chacopata on the peninsula of Araya will be joined by a neck of land to the islands of Lobos and Coche. The partial retreat of the waters on the coast of Cumana is undeniable and the bottom of the sea has been upheaved at various times by earthquakes; but these local phenomena, which it is so difficult to account for by the action of volcanic force, the changes in the direction of currents, and the consequent swelling of the waters, are very different from the effects manifested at once over the space of several hundred square leagues.

4. GROUP OF THE MOUNTAINS OF PARIME.

It is essential to mineralogical geography to designate by one name all the mountains that form one system. To attain this end, a denomination belonging to a partial group only may be extended over the whole chain; or a name may be employed which, by reason of its novelty, is not likely to give rise to homogenic mistakes. Mountaineers designate every group by a special denomination; and a chain is generally considered as forming a whole only when it is seen from afar bounding the horizon of the plains. We find the name of snowy mountains (Himalaya, Imaus) repeated in every zone, white (Alpes, Alb), black and blue. The greater part of the Sierra Parime is, as it were, edged round by the Orinoco.

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