Over the swiftest and deepest rivers there are generally bridges, but a stream flooded by heavy rain may hold one up for a week or more, and where the track is along the sides of precipitous ravines wash-outs and landslides are often serious obstacles. Despite the industry of the inhabitants, the primitive character of the roads in the Andes is a great hindrance to adequate development of the country, and when one hears of machinery for use in Mérida taking a year to get there from the terminus of the La Ceiba Railway one wonders that the prominence of the Andinos in politics has not secured for their States some beginning of a system of adequate roads suitable for wheel traffic. Railways have been projected, but the cost of building these in virgin country generally renders the freights so high that they do little or nothing for development. Roads may appeal less to the imagination than the more modern means of communication, but there can be little doubt that the often despised road in a country like Venezuela would for a time be a better investment for public, if not for private, capital. [Illustration: A STREET IN LA GRITA.] [Illustration: PUENTE REAL: GORGE OF THE CHAMA.] The mineral wealth of the Andes is as yet practically untouched, yet copper and silver are known to occur in Táchira and Mérida; gold is said to have been found in the latter, and coal and petroleum occur in all three States. The Andine States include some of the best coffee-lands in the republic, and Maracaibo coffee, as it is called, enjoys great favour in the United States. In the warmer regions good cocoa can be grown, while wheat is common in the upper temperate zones. Tobacco also flourishes in Mérida and Trujillo. The forests of the mountain-flanks add to the botanic wealth of the region mahogany, ebony, lignum-vitæ, quinine, dividive, and many other valuable products hardly exploited as yet. For population and revenue Trujillo stands first of the Andine States, Táchira second, and Mérida, though the largest in area, third. For convenience of description we will consider them in geographical order, beginning from the south. The capital of Táchira is San Cristobal, founded on the left bank of the River Torbes by Juan Maldonado in 1561. Although, in approaching the town, the traveller who does not trace his route on a map would consider himself still on the Maracaibo side of the watershed, the waters of the Torbes flow round the mountains behind the town to join the Uribante, a sub-tributary of the Orinoco. The main watershed of the Venezuelan Andes at this point is probably less than 4,000 feet above the sea, and San Cristobal is well situated in respect of through traffic from the western Llanos to Zulia or Colombia. Despite its political importance, therefore, its aspect is in the main that of a busy commercial town situated in a fruitful valley.