CARACCAS Ax extensive district in the eastern part of Terra Firma, in South America, comprehending the province of Vene zuela in the centre, the government of Maracaibo on the west, Guiana on the south, the government of Cumana on the east, and the island of Margaretta on the north-east. This district is bounded on the north by the Atlantic ocean, from 72° 35' to 60° west longitude, that is, from the Cape de la Vela to the point of Megilones or Paria ; the ocean likewise forms its eastern boundary, from 12° to 8° of north latitude ; on the south it is bounded by Dutch Guiana and Peru ; and on the west by the kingdom of Santa Fe.
A country extending from the twelfth degree of lati tude to the equator, might be expected to suffer all the relentless severity of a tropical sun. In some places, in deed, the heat of the torrid zone is felt without any abate ment ; but in a great proportion of this wide province, the inhabitants enjoy the mildness of a perpetual spring. This peculiarity of temperature is occasioned by the link of a chain of mountains, which, commencing at one of the Andes of Quito, traverses Merida and the govern ment of Varinas, then stretches to the north as far as the coast, and, taking thence an easterly direction, insensibly diminishes in height till it finally loses itself in the island of Trinidad. That part of the chain which traverses the district of Caraccas, is, in its ordinary breadth, fifteen leagues, in some points twenty, but no where less than ten. In general the elevation of these mountains is so moderate, that they are not only habitable, but suscepti ble of all the operations of agriculture. The eastern Picacho alone, towering in sullen majesty to the stupen dous height of 1278 fathoms, bids defiance to the efforts of human industry. Next to it in grandeur is the Tu meriquiri, which rises 935 fathoms above the level of the sea. The variety of temperature which these eminences produce, is extremely favourable to the diversity of ve getable productions.
After passing these mountains from north to south, we find immense plains stretching from cast to west, from the village of Pas, in 64° 35' of west longitude, to the bottom of the mountains of Santa Fe. In these plains, which are bounded on the south by the river Oronoko, the heat is so intense as to be nearly intolerable. The strong vegetation which prevails in general upon these mountains, and the calcareous substances with which they abound, seem to prove, that they are of the second order of mountains ; accumulated strata of different sub stances, formed by various revolutions of the globe, or by violent convulsions of nature. Yet, upon the Saddle mountain, the highest of that chain, Baron Ilumboldt has found some fine granite, of which quartz, felt-spar, and mica, are the constituent parts ; a clear indication, ac cording to the same system, that this mountain, at least, is either primitive, or has emerged at a much earlier pe nod than its companions from the bosom of the waters. Whatever suppon. may be derived from the structure of these mountains to -any, or to both of the contending theo ries, by which geologists arc at present so keenly agitat ed, they afford at least to the agriculturist, in the rich variety of their productions, a field of speculation and of industry, amply sufficient to occupy his time, and to gra tify his fondest hopes of gain.
The gradual changes of temperature, the delightful blending of the seasons, which so agreeably diversify the year in the temperate climates of Europe, are unknown to the inhabitants of the Caraccas. \\Tinter and summer here complete the year : nor are these seasons distin guished so much by the various degrees of heat and as by the rains which prevail during the former, and the drought by which the latter is characterized. The rainy
season, or winter, continues from the end of April to the beginning of November ; during the six remaining months, which constitute summer, the rains are less fre quent, and in some years even rare. There are some days, even in the rainy season, when not a drop falls ; but there are others, though not very frequent, when it rains incessantly. M. Depons calculates that, taking one day with another, it rains for the space of three hours each day ; and oftener in the evening than in the morning. The quantity of rain which falls during that season, is nearly equal in the provinces of Venezuela, Cumana, and Guiana; and the benefits and disadvantages which the rains bring along with them, are participated by the plains, mountains, and vallies. The drizzling rains of the polar regions are never seen in this part of South America ; nor can an inhabitant of countries even within the temperate zone form any adequate idea of the sudden heavy falls common in these latitudes ; the discharges from water-spouts rushing down with the violence of a torrent, and producing more moisture in a single day than the rains of Europe do in six. During the greater part of the rainy season, all the rivers inundate the adja• cent plains ; channels, formed by the violence of the floods, which remained dry during the rest of the year, are now converted into torrents, and overflowing their banks to an immense distance, form a kind of temporary sea, where the traveller can descry only the tops of the loftiest trees, which then serve him as landmarks. The northern plains of the Oronoko are overwhelmed by such an annual deluge, to the extent of one hundred and fifty leagues in length, and forty in breadth. Previous to the year 1792, the rains were uniformly accompanied with vivid lightnings and tremendous peals of thunder ; since that period, however, at least till 1804, rain falls in great abundance without any of the usual accompaniments of a storm. The atmospheric electricity appears to have been attracted and accumulated in that mass of matter which forms the Corderillcras ; and to this cause are to be ascribed those earthquakes which were so dreadfully experienced at Cumana, in the month of December, 1797. (Sec CUMANA.) Though placed between the Antilles, where earthquakes are frequent, and Peru, where they arc still more so, Caraccas enjoys intervals of repose, which we might be disposed to consider as almost miraculous, did we not know, that its air being less rarefied, gives less action to electricity, and that its soil contains in its bosom a smaller portion of the princi ples of fermentation and combustion. On the 1st May 1802, at eleven o'clock in the evening, there was a pret ty strong shock felt at Caraccas, with au oscillation from west to east. On the 20th of the same month, at five minutes past four o'clock in the afternoon, there was another of a vertical direction, which lasted one minute, nor (lid the earth resume its horizontal position for two minutes afterwards. Two strong shocks were experi enced on the 4th July following-, at 18 minutes past two o'clock in the morning ; and nearly two hours alter, there was another, not so strong. A dreadful earthquake has lately (March 26th 1812) desolated l.a Guayra and Ca raccas ; by which many public and private buildings have been thrown down, and an incredible number of the in habitants are said to have perished. The local origin of these earthquakes appears to be in the province of Cu Thalia, for they are there niore violent than in any other part of the district of Caraccas.