The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-12-21

| People.
/ Although the Republic of Venezuela
has been a somewhat settled and COM
paratively well-deflned country for over
| 400 years, it was not until recently that
the attention of the people of the United
States became strongly attracted to this
sister republic on the South American
continent.
| Venezuela, indeed, has been practically
left to the unaided resources of develop
ment of it's own inhabitants, since the
period when the ancient Spanish con-
Querors abandoned the territory for those
other regions on the slopes OF the Andes,
where the precious metals We're seeming
ly much more abundant and were to lie
had with the expenditure of infinitely
less time and trouble. During these
several centuries the country slumbered,
and it's wonderful natural resources lay
undiscovered.
! This was in part due to the situation
Of the country, and in part the consa-
quence Of the easy. going disposi tion of
the descendants of the original Spanish
inhabitants. Immigration, however,
added to the awakened spirit of the age,
has astonishingly quickened the impulses
of the Venezuelans, as is attested by the
rapid growth and quickly perfected char
acter of their chief cities, notably
Caracas, the capital of the nation and of
! its federal districts, which has been
| likened by travellers to Paris on a smaller
SCALE
The chief knowledge of Venezuela
gained from the school Biographies of
a quarter of a century ago was circum-
! scri bed by the fact that it was the first
land seen by Columbus on his.third yoy-
age to the west and that it WAS trayersed
by the Orinoco, one of the greatest rivers
of the world. 1t was pictured as q region
of limitless tropic forests, immense plains
and vast mountain ranges.
Venezuela has frequently been styled,
in reference to its dispute with England
over it's boundary line, small country.
1t is SO only in the comparative sense,
when contrasted in the mind fgurative-
| ly with the enormous development and
| compact civilization of Great Britain.
Venezuela is large country-larger than
| France, Germany, and Holland combined.
1t is equal in extent to the great States
of Texas. Colorado, Idaho, and California
| joined together. Including the territory
in dispute with England, Venezuela has
an area of almost 600, 600 square miles.
Visitors to the Chicago Worlds Fair
we're astonished to see the variety of the
productions of Venezuela there displayed.
These include many kinds Of maize,
starch. sugar and sugar cane, honey,
BEANS coffee, cocoa, chocolate, tobacco,
hemp, palm leaves, cotton, silk-cotton,
silk-wool, vegetable horsehair, vegetable
sponges, mineral waters, alcoholic, and
other beverages, caster beans, caster oil,
cocoanut oil, crab OIL sassafras oil,
vanilla, sopas, beeswax, ornamental
woods, dyeing and tanning woods, and
barks. gums, resins, and caoutehouc
brooms. baskets. fibres, preserved fruits,
coal, gold and silver, asbestos, copper,
opal. talc oalcic spar, galena, tonka
beans, Ignite, petroleum, marble, paving
stones, stalactites, kaolin, pipe-clay, mag
nesian limestone, nitre, sulphur, rubber,
indigo, phosphate, guano, iron ore, mus
tard, sarsaparilla oinohona bark, cola
nuts, tamarinds, and aloes.
Of forest woods alone there were 1856
va rieties, including fine specimen Of
the algarrobo, a beautiful wood of dark
yellowish color, streaked with green
veins. There were besides many speci-
mems of prepared products, chemical and
pharmaceutical. and of manufactures,
not to speak Of a collection of paintings
by Venezuelan artists andE of many books
and newspapers
Venezuela lies altogether within the
torrid equatorial region, tho great line
passing through the southernmost terri
| tory of Alto-Amazonas. Notwithstand-
| ing this, the temperature of the country
| is much milder than that of the African
equatorial coast lands-for instance,
Guinea and Zanzibar. Situated at the
northern end of South America, with the
| Caribbean Sea to the north, the Atlantic
| Ocean on the east. and high mountains
| in the interior, Venezuela is peculiarly
| favored by the natural elements Three
mountain ranges rear snow-capped sum
mits to the sky---the Andes, the Coast
Range, and the Parma Mountains The
Andes cross the northwestern States from
northeast to southwest The Coast Range
runs parallel with the Caribbean coast.
The Parma Mountains, beginning in the
interior of the central western State of
Bolivar, run east and west and mark the
southern limit of the agricultural zone.
Venezuela sshas the shape of three
leafed clover, with the stem on the Carib-
bean coast. Speaking generally, nearly
every State in the country is mountain
Gus to some degree. Among the noun
tains the country varies in temperature
from moderate to very cold. The tenn
perate lands begin at the height of 7,GCo
feet above and descend until within 1000
feet of the sea level Below that leyol are
the hot countries.
There are but TWO seasons in Venezuela,
the wet and the cry. When the sun