New Granada is almost entirely a mountain region, occupied by the
northern end of the Andes, except where it slopes down towards the
Isthmus of Panama and the Caribbean Sea. Venezuela, however, contains
three distinct zones or characters of country--mountains, forests, and
open plains. The mountain regions, which are also three in number, are
separated by wide plains. On the west, the mountains belong to the
Andes--being spurs of that range--a large portion consisting of
table-lands, called paramos, from 10,000 to 14,000 feet above the
sea-level. Among them lies the Lake of Maracaibo, ninety-two miles in
length, and eighty-two in width--the largest in South America. On the
north-east is the Sierra de Bergantin, and in the south-east the Sierra
de Parima. The forests extend from the Orinoco southward, joining that
of the Amazon--a vast tract, but seldom penetrated by the traveller.
The natives call the three zones into which they divide their country
the Tierras Calidas, or hot countries--rising not more that 2000 feet
above the sea, and in which only tropical plants and fruits flourish;
the Tierras Templadas, or temperate country--from 2000 to 7000 feet
above the sea, where the agricultural productions of Europe succeed
best; and the Tierras Frias, or cold countries--which rise above the
former, to the height of 15,000 feet, the summits of the mountains
reaching 148 feet above the snow-line.
Two seasons exist in the tropics, into which the year is divided--the
wet and the dry. Though the heat is greatest in the former, it is
called winter, as the sun then passes twice over the zenith; while
during the dry season, which is called summer, the sun is in the
southern hemisphere. During the whole year the north-east trade-wind
blows across the country, but modified in direction and force by these
seasons.
In consequence of the very different elevations of the land, the
productions of nearly all parts of the world can here be cultivated
successfully. In the hot districts, chiefly bordered by the sea,
cotton, indigo, cacao, coffee, sugar, tobacco, and cocoa-nuts come to
perfection. The cocoa-palm, enjoying the advantage of the sea-breeze,
here grows to a height of seven hundred feet above the ocean. No
tobacco surpasses that of the well-known Varina. Barley and millet, as
well as wheat, are produced on the more elevated tracts; while maize is
cultivated all over the country.
The wide-extending marshes and pools are frequented by pelicans, herons,
and wild geese, ducks, and flamingoes; while other birds--chiefly
belonging to the Falconidae, Ardeidae, Strigidae, and Psittacidae--are
numerous. The savage alligator and fearful anaconda abound in all the
rivers and lakes; while the jaguar, puma, ounce, tiger-cat, monkey,
tapir, capybara, porcupine, wild hog, sloth, and ant-eater range through
its forests and savannahs.
Numerous tribes of the aborigines, driven back by the whites, exist in
the remoter districts. They are generally of a dark copper colour,
while some are of a lighter hue; and though building huts, most of them
go almost naked. They exist on plantains, yucca, batatas, and the
sugar-cane--which they rudely cultivate; and the fish, as well as the
manatees and alligators, which swarm in their waters.
The neighbourhood of the Caraccas is described as a terrestrial
paradise, where spring perpetually reigns. In this favoured region, all
the fruits of the tropics come to the greatest perfection. The
delicious chirimoya takes the first place. It is likened to lumps of
flavoured cream, ready to be frozen, suspended from the branches of some
fairy tree, amidst an overpowering perfume of flowers--for it is in
bearing all the year round. "He who has not tasted the chirimoya fruit,
has yet to learn what fruit is," says Markham.
Here, too, the grandilla, in shape like a water-melon, hangs from its
delicate tendrils. When cut open, it is found filled with a juice-like
nectar, having the flavour of the strawberry and peach. A species, of
cactus--the nopal--produces the tuna or Indian fig.
It is on the fleshy, downy stems of the cactus that the cochineal insect
is reared, producing the valuable crimson dyes which outshine the
vaunted productions of Tyre; and from the same family of plants rises
the magnificent pitahaya,--"those flowers known for size and effulgence,
which begin to open as the sun declines, and bloom during the night,
shedding a delicious fragrance, and offering their brimful goblets,
filled with nectareous juice, to thousands of moths and other
crepuscular and nocturnal insects," as Gosse describes it.
The splendid mammey apple-tree (Mammea Americana), which bears numbers
of round and heavy fruits, brown outside, and of a golden yellow within,
valued for the marmalades and other delicacies formed from them.
Of the same family as the chirimoya is the guanabana (Anona muricata),
or sour sop, an unattractive name for so delicious a fruit. From it a
cooling drink is made, and ices of fine flavour.
A near relative is the custard apple, filled with a ruddy compounded
substance, which no cook can surpass. As also the rinon (Anona
squamosa), a kidney-like fruit in form, with a custard-like interior.
The superb alligator-pear, more properly called percia gratissima; its
first name given probably from its being indigenous to a country
abounding in saurian reptiles, otherwise it is difficult to account for
its inappropriate designation. It resembles in shape a large pear; but
the interior of its rind is lined with a marrow-like substance of a
yellowish colour, somewhat like butter, and used at the breakfast-table.
Among other products is the tamarind, unrivalled either as regards
beauty of foliage, brilliancy of blossoms, or the delicacy of its
acidulous pulpy pods. In blossom the tree is a lovely object. Amid its
feathery dark green foliage issue, in vast numbers, golden yellow
branches with delicate flowers dazzling to the eye; while its fruits in
a green state form a candied sweetmeat, or when ripe, and made into a
decoction, a refreshing drink for fever-stricken patients.
The inaja-palm, of various species, produces pellucid pods, from one to
two feet in length, containing a row of beans--enveloped in white
cottony pulp--grateful to the taste.
The cocoa-palm, though at a distance from the coast, here flourishes in
great perfection, adding to the splendour of the vegetation, with its
glorious crown of monster leaves; while the plantain and banana are
widely cultivated, a few plants of which are sufficient to supply a
family with bread, vegetables, fruit, and preserves of various kinds.
Humboldt observes that an area planted with plantains produces nearly
twenty times as much food as the same space sown with corn.