Equinoctial Regions of America, vol 2 | Page 3

cannot be too often repeated that nature, in
every zone, whether wild or cultivated, smiling or majestic, has an
individual character. The impressions which she excites are infinitely
varied, like the emotions produced by works of genius, according to the
age in which they were conceived, and the diversity of language from
which they in part derive their charm. We must limit our comparisons
merely to dimensions and external form. We may institute a parallel
between the colossal summit of Mont Blanc and the Himalaya
Mountains; the cascades of the Pyrenees and those of the Cordilleras:
but these comparisons, useful with respect to science, fail to convey an
idea of the characteristics of nature in the temperate and torrid zones.
On the banks of a lake, in a vast forest, at the foot of summits covered
with eternal snow, it is not the mere magnitude of the objects which
excites our admiration. That which speaks to the soul, which causes

such profound and varied emotions, escapes our measurements as it
does the forms of language. Those who feel powerfully the charms of
nature cannot venture on comparing one with another, scenes totally
different in character.
But it is not alone the picturesque beauties of the lake of Valencia that
have given celebrity to its banks. This basin presents several other
phenomena, and suggests questions, the solution of which is interesting
alike to physical science and to the well-being of the inhabitants. What
are the causes of the diminution of the waters of the lake? Is this
diminution more rapid now than in former ages? Can we presume that
an equilibrium between the waters flowing in and the waters lost will
be shortly re-established, or may we apprehend that the lake will
entirely disappear?
According to astronomical observations made at La Victoria, Hacienda
de Cura, Nueva Valencia, and Guigue, the length of the lake in its
present state from Cagua to Guayos, is ten leagues, or twenty-eight
thousand eight hundred toises. Its breadth is very unequal. If we judge
from the latitudes of the mouth of the Rio Cura and the village of
Guigue, it nowhere surpasses 2.3 leagues, or six thousand five hundred
toises; most commonly it is but four or five miles. The dimensions, as
deduced from my observations are much less than those hitherto
adopted by the natives. It might be thought that, to form a precise idea
of the progressive diminution of the waters, it would be sufficient to
compare the present dimensions of the lake with those attributed to it
by ancient chroniclers; by Oviedo for instance, in his History of the
Province of Venezuela, published about the year 1723. This writer in
his emphatic style, assigns to "this inland sea, this monstruoso cuerpo
de la laguna de Valencia"* (* "Enormous body of the lake of
Valencia."), fourteen leagues in length and six in breadth. He affirms
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 (leguas) reckoned in the colonies at three thousand,
five thousand, and six thousand six hundred and fifty varas.* (*
Seamen being the first, and for a long time the only, persons who
introduced into the Spanish colonies any precise ideas on the

astronomical position and distances of places, the legua nautica of 6650
varas, or of 2854 toises (20 in a degree), was originally used in Mexico
and throughout South America; but this legua nautica has been
gradually reduced to one-half or one-third, on account of the slowness
of travelling across steep mountains, or dry and burning plains. The
common people measure only time directly; and then, by arbitrary
hypotheses, infer from the time the space of ground travelled over. In
the course of my geographical researches, I have had frequent
opportunities of examining the real value of these leagues, by
comparing the itinerary distances between points lying under the same
meridian with the difference of latitudes.) Oviedo, who must so often
have passed over the valleys of Aragua, asserts that the town of Nueva
Valencia del Rey was built in 1555, at the distance of half a league
from the lake; and that the proportion between the length of the lake
and its breadth, is as seven to three. At present, the town of Valencia is
separated from the lake by level ground of more than two thousand
seven hundred toises (which Oviedo would no doubt have estimated as
a space of a league and a half); and the length of the basin of the lake is
to its breadth as 10 to 2.3, or as 7 to 1.6. The appearance