the sea-shore, and in the gulf, we find flocks of fishingherons, and alcatras of a very unwieldy form, which swim like the swan, raising their wings. Nearer the habitations of men, thousands of galenas, vultures, the true jackals of the winged tribe, are ever busy in uncovering the carcasses of animals. The coasts are bathed by a tranquil sea of an azure tint, and always gently agitated by the same wind. A pure and bright sky, offering only a few light clouds at sunset, rests on the ocean, on the peninsula [of Araya] destitute of trees, and on the plains of Cumana, whilst storms are seen to form, accumulate, and resolve into fertile showers among the mountain-tops of the interior. It is thus that on these coasts, as at the foot of the Andes, the earth and the skies offer the extremes of clear weather and fogs, of drought and torrents of rain, of absolute bareness and a verdure incessantly renewed. In the New Continent, the low regions on the sea-coasts differ as widely from the inland mountainous districts, as the plains of Lower Egypt from the high lands of Abyssinia."

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EXCURSIONS FROM CUMANA.

CHAPTER II.

Excursions from Cumana-The Alps of America-Cabins of the Mestizoes-Ridge named The Impossible-South American forestsBamboo plants-Village of San Fernando-The Superior of the Mission-Town of Cumanacoa-Ravages of wild beasts-Cavern with luminous exhalations.

[1799.]

FOUR months elapsed after the arrival of our travellers at Cumana, before they finally quitted it on their great expedition to the Orinoco. But in this interval they made two excursions,-one, to the peninsula of Araya and its salt works, the other to the missions of the Chayma Indians, in the mountains of New Andalusia. This second excursion was commenced on the 4th of September, the travellers quitting the city of Cumana at an early hour.

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"After a journey of two hours," says Humboldt, we reached the foot of the lofty chain of the interior mountains, which runs from east to west, from the Brigantine to the Cerro de San Lorenzo. Here, new species of rocks commence, and, with them, a new aspect of vegetation. Everything here assumes a more majestic and picturesque character. The ground, watered by springs, is intersected in all directions. Trees, of a gigantic height, and covered with creepers, shoot up in the ravines; their bark, blackened and burned by the twofold action of light and atmospheric oxygen, forms a contrast with the vivid green of the pothos and dracontium, the leather-like and glossy leaves of which frequently shoot out to the length of several feet. The parasitical monocotyledons, between the tropics, may be said to occupy the place of the mosses and the

THE ALPS OF AMERICA.

15

lichens of our northern zone. As we proceeded, the mountains, both by their shape and grouping, brought to our recollection the scenery of Swisserland and the Tyrol. Upon these Alps of America, even at considerable heights, we met with the Heliconia, the Costus, the Maranta, and others of the cane family; while, near the coast, the same plants delight only in low and swampy situations. It is thus, that, by an extraordinary similarity, in the torrid zone, as in the north of Europe, under the influence of an atmosphere continually loaded with fog, as upon a soil moistened by melting snow, the vegetation of mountains presents all the characteristic features of that of marshy places."

The cabins of the Mestizoes dwelling in these parts were found placed in the midst of small enclosures, containing bananas, papayas, sugar-canes, and maize. Humboldt remarks, that the small extent of their cleared spots would surprise us, if we did not recollect that an acre, planted with banana-trees, yields nearly twenty times the quantity of aliment which the same space would give if sown with grain. This superior fecundity of nature in the torrid zone, prevents the spreading of a population over a wide space. In Europe, the wheat and other kinds of grain, necessary for the food of its inhabitants, cover a vast extent of country; and the cultivators necessarily come into contact with each other. In the torrid zone, the reverse is the case; there the fertility of the soil corresponds with the heat and humidity of the atmosphere, and man avails himself of those vegetables which rise most rapidly, and yield most abundantly. Thus, a numerous population finds ample subsistence within a narrow space, and the tracts of cultivated land are separated from each other by the intervention of large wastes. Even in the