MARACAIBO, a city and seaport of Venezuela, the capital of the state of Zulia (formerly Maracaibo), lies about 25 miles from the sea on the west bank of Lake Maracaibo, the suburbs presenting, with their cocoa-nut groves, a fine contrast to the background of barren-looking hills sloping up from the shore to a height of about 200 feet. The streets are laid out at right angles; the houses are poor structures of a crude concrete or rubble, strengthened by wooden beams; and even the public buildings— such as the churches, the government house, the courthouse, and the theatre—owe their pretentious appearance to plaster and paint. The water of the lake being brackish, and the sinking of Artesian wells as yet in the experimental stage, Maracaibo is dependent on the rains for its drinking water. The markets are well supplied with provisions (especially game), and the lower classes, with whom the plantain forms the staff of life, are able to subsist in a state of comparative idleness. The prosperity of the place is due to the fact that it forms the outlet for the produce of a wide region; and if the bar at the mouth of the lake, preventing the entrance of vessels drawing more than 10 or 11 feet, were removed Maracaibo would bid fair to become the chief mercantile centre of the north coast of South America. Coffee, not of prime quality, cocoa, and hides are the principal exports at present, $4,029,852 out of the $4,188,617 at which the whole exports were valued in 1880 being drawn from those items. Steamers ascend the Catatumbo as far as San Buenaventura and Villarnizar and the Escalente to Santa Cruz, thus tapping the border provinces of both Venezuela and Colombia. Bricks and tiles, leather and admirable saddlery, cocoa-nut oil, sugar, rum, and chocolate are manufactured in ...