The better known region of the north is generally considered as divided, qua climate, into three regions, in common with tropical South America generally—that is to say, the hot, temperate, and cold zones. The hot zone or Tierra caliente is generally considered as ranging from sea-level to an elevation of 1,915 feet, where the mean annual temperature varies from 74° to 91° Fahr. The intermediate or temperate zone, the Tierra templada, lies between 1,915 and 7,030 feet above sea-level, and within those limits the mean annual temperature may fall as low as, or even lower than, 60° Fahr. The Tierra fria, or cold zone, including the highest peak of Venezuela, 16,423 feet, has mean annual temperatures ranging from 60° to below zero.
The Tierra caliente includes (in addition to the greater part of Guayana) the Llanos, the coastal plains, and the region of the Lake of Maracaibo, the lower slopes and part of the central valleys of the mountains, part of the Segovia Highlands, and the Caribbean islands. The higher ground naturally has a climate varying with elevation, but the typical hot country, the Llanos are the warmest, the islands the coolest. On the Llanos the central, northern, and eastern regions are cooler than the southern and western, the highest mean annual temperature being recorded in San Fernando de Apure. Over this area the rainfall is heavy, and the wet season lasts from April to November. Maracaibo has the highest temperature of the cities of the coastal region, and, while the rains in the greater part of the area last through the same months as in Guayana and the Llanos, the area round the lake is comparatively free from rain until August and September, when the heaviest falls are recorded. The Segovia highlands and the islands alike have a lower mean temperature and rainfall than the remainder of the zone, the position of the one region, behind the coastal range which has precipitated the moisture of the easterly winds, being paralleled by the distance of the islands from these heights in the opposite direction.
The Tierra templada includes the greater part of the inhabited region of the hills, in which the climate necessarily varies greatly according to situation, the bottoms of some of the Andine valleys within the zone being more oppressive than parts of the low countries.
In the eastern part of the Caribbean Hills the rains last during the same months as in the Llanos, but in the Andes, particularly to the south, the seasons vary, and it is generally considered that there are two rainy seasons; the first light rains from April to June, separated by “St. John’s little summer” (El Veranito de San Juan) from the later heavy rains which last from August to November; this arrangement applies rather to the eastern side of the watershed, the western side having an increasing similarity in seasons to the Llanos as one descends towards those plains.
Only the higher peaks and ridges of the Caribbean Hills are included in the Tierra fria, but between Tocuyo and the Colombian frontier the greater part of the area is situated above 7,030 feet. The prevalent strong winds and the sparse vegetation of the upper areas render them too unattractive to have become extensively colonised, but the products of the temperate zone grow readily in the lower parts below the timber-limit. Only the peaks of the Sierra Nevada are permanently snow-covered, the line having, it is said, retreated upwards of late years. The snow is apparently more abundant in the hotter months of the year, when the clouds which are dropping rain on the plain hide the peaks for many hours of the day, and then, lifting suddenly, show them white with snow far below the normal point, which is about 14,700 feet above sea-level. A very short period of exposure to the sun’s rays restores the mountains to their usual aspect.
PANORAMA OF THE ANDES FROM NORTH OF CARACHE.
From the point of view of health, Venezuela must be looked upon as holding a good record for a country in its latitude, where malaria is to be expected to prevail. The death-rate for the whole republic in 1908 is given in the Anuario Estadístico as 25·1 per 1,000, and of the 56,903 deaths in that year, about one-third were infants under four years of age, while malaria (paludismo) accounts for 8,239. Tuberculosis and gastric and nervous diseases are the most prevalent causes of death. Yellow fever, once so prevalent, is now rare, thanks to improved sanitary conditions. The Delta region and the lower parts of the Guayana valley are the most unhealthy from a general point of view, while the death-rate of the cities shows that the Llanos are by far the healthiest district, with the Andes next, followed by the Caribbean Hills. In some of the low-lying coast towns, where mangrove swamps abound in the neighbourhood, the death-rate is high, but as a general rule the northern coast, with its dry atmosphere and sea breezes, while hot, appears to be markedly healthy.