say, if it be not crossed or hastened by the im prudence of the traveller. It is on the frightful roads of the Andes, during journeys of six or seven months across mountains furrowed by torrents, that the intelligence of horses and beasts of burden displays itself in an astonishing manner. Thus the mountaineers are heard to say, "I will not give you the mule whose step is the easiest, but him who reasons best ;" la mas racional. This popular expression, dictated by long experience, combats the system of animated machines, better perhaps than all the arguments of speculative philosophy.

When we had reached the highest point of the ridge or cuchilla of Guanaguana, an interesting spectacle presented itself to our eyes. We embraced in one view the vast savannahs or meadows of Maturin and Rio Tigre *; the peak of the Tumiriquiri†; and an infinite number of parallel ridges, which, seen at a distance, looked like the waves of the sea. Toward the north-east opens the valley, that contains the convent of Caripe. The aspect of this valley is peculiarly attractive, as, shaded by forests, it forms a strong contrast with the nudity of the neighbouring mountains, which are bare of

These natural meadows are part of the llanos or im mense steppes bordered by the Oronoko.

+ El Cucurucho.

Trees, and covered with gramineous plants. We found the absolute height of the Cuchillo to be 548 toises; it is consequently 329 toises more elevated than the house of the missionary at Guanaguana.

Descending from the ridge by a winding path, we entered into a country completely woody. The soil is covered with moss, and a new species of drosera *, which by it's form reminded us of the drosera of the Alps. The thickness of the forests, and the force of vegetation, augmented as we approached the convent of Caripe. Every thing here changes it's aspect, even to the rock that accompanied us from Punte Delgada. The calcareous strata become thinner, forming graduated steps, which stretch out like walls, cornices, and turrets, as in the mountains of Jura, those of Pappenheim in Germany, and near Oizow in Gallicia. The colour of the stone is no longer of a smoky or bluish gray; it becomes white: it's fracture is smooth, and sometimes even imperfectly conchoidal. It is no longer the calcareous formation of the Higher Alps, but a formation to which this serves as a basis, and which is analogous to the Jura limestone. In the chain of the Apennines, between Rome and Nocera, I observed this same immediate superposition. It indicates,

* Drosera tenella.

It is thus, that near Geneva the rock of the Mole, be

For page 109 turn backward 5- leaves.

we here repeat, not the transition from one rock to another, but the geological affinity existing between two formations. According to the general type of the secondary strata, recognised

longing to the Alpine limestone, lies under the Jura limestone, which forms Mount Saleve.

*The succession of secondary formations seems to be on the continent as follows, when they are all equally deve loped; that is to say, when none of them are either wanting, or involved in the neighbouring formations. 1°. Ancient sandstone, lying on transition slate (alter sandstein, todes liegende). 2o, Alpine limestone (alpenkalkstein, zechstein). 3. Ancient gypsum (salzgyps). 4°. Jura limestone (jurakalkstein). 5. Sandstone of the second formation, Molasse (bunter sandstein). 6°. Fibrous gypsum (neuer gyps). 7°. Limestone of the third formation (muschelkalkstein of Werner). 8°. Chalk. 9°. Limestone with cerites. 10°. Gypsum with bones. 11°. Sandstone. 12°. Fresh water formation. We shall often havo occasion to recur to this type, the complete knowledge of which seems to be the principal object of geognosy, and upon which accurate ideas have been begun to be formed only within these twenty years. We shall merely observe here, that the last formations 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, examined with so much care by Brogniart and Cuvier, are wanting in a great part of Europe; that the limestones 2 and 4 often form only one mass; and that in every place, where the two formations of gypsum (3 and 6) are missing, the order of secondary rocks is reduced to the very simple type of two sandstone formations alternating with two calcareous formations. To account for a great number of phenomena of superposition, which appear very singular at first sight, we must recollect the two following laws, founded upon the analogy of well observed facts: 1°. When two

CHAPTER VII.

Convent of Caripe.-Cavern of the Guacharo.Nocturnal Birds.

AN alley of perseas led us to the Hospital of the Arragonese Capuchins. We stopped near a cross of Brasil wood, erected in the midst of a square, and surrounded with benches, on which infirm monks seat themselves to say their rosaries. The convent is backed by an enormous wall of perpendicular rocks, covered with thick vegetation. The stone, of resplendent whiteness, appears only here and there between the foliage. It is difficult to imagine a more picturesque spot. It recalled forcibly to my remembrance the valleys of Derbyshire, and the cavernous mountains of Muggendorf in Franconia. The places of the beeches and mapletrees of Europe are here occupied by the prouder forms of the ceiba, and the palm-trees, praga and irasse. Numberless springs gush out from the sides of the rocks, which encircle the basin of Caripe, and of which the abrupt slopes pre

sent toward the South profiles of a thousand feet in height. These springs arise for the most part from a few narrow crevices. The humidity, which they spread around, favors the growth of the great trees; and the natives, who love solitary places, form their conucos along the sides of these crevices. Plantains and papaw trees surround tufts of arborescent fern. The mixture of wild and cultivated plants gives the place a peculiar charm. Springs are distinguished from afar, on the naked flanks of the mountains, by the tufted masses of vegetation*,

Among the interesting plants of the valley of Caripe, we found for the first time a calidium, the trunk of which is twenty feet high (c. arboreum); the mikania micrantha, which may probably possess some of the alexipharmic properties of the famous guaco of the Choco; the bauhinia ob tusifolia, a very large tree, called guarapa by the Indians; the weinmaunia glabra; a psychotria-tree, the capsules of which, when rubbed between the fingers, give a very agreeable orange smell; the dorstenia houstoni (raiz de resfriado); the martinia craniolaria, the white flowers of which are six or seven inches long; a scrofularia, that has the aspect of the verbascum miconi, and the leaves of which, all radical and hairy, are marked with silvery glands. The nacibaa or manettia of Caripe (manettia cuspidata), of which I made a drawing on the spot, is very different from the m. reclinata of Mutis. This last, which serves as a type to the genus, Linnæus places in Mexico, though it belongs to New Gre nada. Mr. Mutis has never been in Mexico: and he requested us, to acquaint those who pursue the study of botany, that all the plants he sent to Upsal, and which are described