Equinoctial Regions of America, vol 2 | Page 4

of the soil
between Valencia and Guigue, the little hills rising abruptly in the plain
east of the Cano de Cambury, some of which (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 the half of its length. The situation of the granite
mountains of Mariara and of Guigue, the slope of the ground which
rises more rapidly towards the north and south than towards the east
and west, are alike repugnant to this supposition.
In treating the long-discussed question of the diminution of the waters,
I conceive we must distinguish between the different periods at which
the sinking of their level has taken place. Wherever we examine the
valleys of rivers, or the basins of lakes, we see the ancient shore at
great distances. No doubt seems now to be entertained, that our rivers
and lakes have undergone immense diminutions; but many geological
facts remind us also, that these great changes in the distribution of the
waters have preceded all historical times; and that for many thousand

years most lakes have attained a permanent equilibrium between the
produce of the water flowing in, and that of evaporation and filtration.
Whenever we find this equilibrium broken, it will be well rather to
examine whether the rupture be not owing to causes merely local, and
of very recent date, than to admit an uninterrupted diminution of the
water. This reasoning is conformable to the more circumspect method
of modern science. At a time when the physical history of the world,
traced by the genius of some eloquent writers, borrowed all its charms
from the fictions of imagination, the phenomenon of which we are
treating would have been adduced as a new proof of the contrast these
writers sought to establish between the two continents. To demonstrate
that America rose later than Asia and Europe from the bosom of the
waters, the lake of Tacarigua would have been described as one of
those interior basins which have not yet become dry by the effects of
slow and gradual evaporation. I have no doubt 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.
Everywhere 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 valvatae, which now live
in the lake of Valencia, are found in layers of three or four feet thick as
far inland 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 a very remote period to our days. The
valleys of Aragua are among the portions of Venezuela most anciently
peopled; and yet there is no mention in Oviedo, or any other old
chronicler, of a sensible diminution of the lake. Must we suppose, that
this phenomenon escaped their observation, at a time when the Indians
far exceeded the white population, and when the banks of the lake were
less inhabited? Within half a century, and particularly within these
thirty years, the natural desiccation of this great basin has excited
general attention. We find vast tracts of land which were formerly
inundated, now dry, and already cultivated with plantains, sugar-canes,
or cotton. Wherever a hut is erected on the bank of the lake, we see the
shore receding from year to year. We discover islands, which, in
consequence of the retreat of the waters, are just beginning to be joined

to the continent, as for instance the rocky island of Culebra, in the
direction of Guigue; other islands already form promontories, as the
Morro, between Guigue and Nueva Valencia, and La Cabrera,
south-east of Mariara; others again are now rising in the islands
themselves like scattered hills. Among these last, so easily recognised
at a distance, some are only a quarter of a mile, others a league from the
present shore. I may cite as the most remarkable three granite islands,
thirty or forty toises high, on the road from the Hacienda de Cura to
Aguas Calientes; and at the western extremity of the lake, the Serrito de
Don Pedro, Islote, and Caratapona. On visiting two islands entirely
surrounded by water, we found in the midst of brushwood, on small
flats (four, six, and even eight toises height above the surface of the