All the way along the Valley of the Guaire the hills are, in the season, white with the coffee-bloom, and the small patches of yuca, maize, and bananas may yet become big and profitable plantations. Beyond Santa Lucia the Guaire joins the Tuy, and here, in a broad, flat-bottomed valley full of sugar and cacao, stands Santa Teresa. If we follow down the fertile valley of the Tuy we come at length to the barren, sandy stretch along the coast and its fringe of mangroves, where we encounter the second railway (a rather primitive affair) in the State. The line crosses the river at right angles, and connects the port of Carenero with the little town of Higuerote, a few miles to the south, and with the flourishing manufacturing town of Rio Chico, south of the Tuy; beyond them it is continued to Guapo, on the way to the Llanos of Guárico. Rio Chico is therefore about twenty-four miles by rail from its port, even though the open sea is but four miles away. Here we are down at sea-level, and the mean annual temperature is 82° F. Its position at the edge of the rich alluvium of the Tuy brings it large quantities of coffee, cocoa, beans, and maize, which are easily transmitted by rail to Carenero, and thence conveyed in little schooners or steamers to La Guaira for use in the country or for export. More important to its welfare are the cattle of the Llanos, whose hides are similarly passed on through Carenero to La Guaira, while the carcasses provide the raw material for the manufacture of soap and candles, which, with the making of alpargatas, constitutes the chief industry of the town. Returning to Santa Teresa, we can traverse the plantations to Ocumare, the capital, and beyond to Cúa, named after a famous Indian cacique. Beyond this there are no towns of importance east of the State boundary, but a road over the watershed leads to Los Teques, at the head of the Guaire. This stands at a considerably greater altitude than Carácas, and is chiefly of importance to-day as a health resort, though when Faxardo first visited the Indians after whom the place is named, in the sixteenth century, he was attracted by the copper-mines of the district, now no longer worked. Los Teques is the first town of importance on the Great Venezuelan Railway (a German line) west of Carácas, but it is the last in the State of Miranda. The train climbs up a picturesque gorge to Los Teques, then passes through a tunnel, and begins to cross by equally picturesque loops and zigzags the head of the Tuy, finally dropping down into the fertile valley of Aragua, from which the next State takes its name. The western terminus of the line is Valencia, but the first large town reached is La Victoria (much beloved of ex-President Castro), the capital of Aragua.