The northern and most cultivated part of the province of Caraccas is a country of mountains. The coast chain is divided like the Swiss Alps into several subordinate chains enclosing longitudinal valleys. The most celebrated of these is the pleasant valley of Aragua, which produces a great quantity of indigo, sugar, cotton, and, what is most remarkable, European wheat. The southern margin of this valley adjoins the beautiful lake of Valencia, whose old Indian name is Tacarigua. The contrast between its opposite shores gives it a striking resemblance to the Lake of Geneva. It is true that the bare mountains of Guigue and Guiripa have less grandeur of character than the Savoy Alps; but, on the other hand, the opposite bank of the Tacarigua lake, which is thickly clothed with plantains, mimosas, and triplaris, far surpasses in picturesque beauty the vineyards of the Pays de Vaud. The lake is about thirty geographical miles in length, and is full of small islands, which, as the loss of water by evaporation exceeds the influx, are increasing in size. Within some years sand-banks have even become real islands, and have received the significant name of the “Newly Appeared,” Las Aparecidas. On the island of Cura the remarkable species of Solanum is cultivated which has edible fruit, and which Wildenow has described in the Hortus Berolinensis (1816, Tab. xxvii.) The height of the Lake of Tacarigua above the sea is almost 1400 French feet, (according to my measurement exactly 230 toises, or 1470 English feet,) less than the mean height of the valley of Caraccas. The lake has several kinds of fish (see my Observations de Zoologie et d’Anatomie comparée, T. ii p. 179-181), and is one of the most pleasing natural scenes which I know in any part of the globe. In bathing, Bonpland and myself were often alarmed by the appearance of the Bava, an undescribed crocodile-like lizard, three or four feet in length, of repulsive aspect, but harmless to men. We found in the lake a Typha (Cats-tail), identical with the European Typha angustifolia; a singular fact, and important in reference to the geography of plants.