100

THE LITTLE ANGELS.

it was lost in the strata of air. They expected, as at Teneriffe, to see the horizon level with the eye, but in stead of distinguishing a marked limit between the twc elements, the distant strata of water seemed to be transformed into vapour, and mingled with the aerial ocean. The western dome of the Saddle concealed from them the view of the town of Caracas; but they distinguished the nearest houses, the villages of Chacao and Petare, the coffee plantations, and the course of the Rio Guayra, a slender streak of water reflecting a silvery light.

While they were examining with their glasses that part of the sea, the horizon of which was clearly defined, and the chain of the mountains of Ocumare, behind which began the unknown world of the Orinoco and the Amazon, a thick fog from the plains rose to the elevated regions, first filling the bottom of the valley of Caracas. The vapours, illumined from above, presented a uniform tint of a milky white. The valley seemed overspread with water, and looked like an arm of the sea, of which the adjacent mountains formed the steep shore.

Seated on the rock, Humboldt was determining the dip of the needle, when he found his hands covered with a species of hairy bee, a little smaller than the honey-bee of the north of Europe. These insects make their nests in the ground. The people, in these regions, call them little angels, because they seldom sting.

The fog became so dense that it would have been imprudent to remain any longer, so they descended. It was now half-past four in the afternoon. Satisfied with the success of their journey, they forgot that there might be danger in descending in the dark, steep declivities

DESCENDING THE SADDLE.

101

covered by a smooth and slippery turf. The mist coLcealed the valley from them; but they distinguished the double hill of The Gate, which, like all objects lying almost perpendicularly beneath the eye, appeared extremely near. They relinquished their design of passing the night between the two summits of the Saddle, and having again found the path that they cut through the thick wood, they soon arrived at the little wood already mentioned. As there is scarcely any twilight in the tropics, they passed suddenly from bright daylight to darkness. The moon was on the horizon; but her disk was veiled from time to time by thick clouds, drifted by a cold and rough wind. Rapid slopes, covered with yellow and dry grass, now seen in shade, and now suddenly illumined, seemed like precipices, the depth of which the eye sought in vain to measure. They proceeded onwards in single file, and endeavoured to support themselves by their hands, lest they should roll down. The guides, who carried their instruments, abandoned them successively, to sleep on the mountain. Among those who remained with them was a Congo black, who evinced great address, bearing on his head a large dipping-needle: he held it constantly steady, notwithstanding the extreme declivity of the rocks. The fog had dispersed by degrees in the bottom of the valley, and the scattered lights they perceived below them caused a double illusion. The steeps appeared more dangerous than they really were; and, during six hours of continual descent, they seemed to be always equally near the farms at the foot of the Saddle. They heard very distinctly the voices of men and the notes of guitars. Sound is generally so well propagated upwards, that in a balloon

102

THE ZAMANG DEL GUAYRE.

at the elevation of eighteen thousand feet, the barking of dogs is sometimes heard.

They did not arrive till ten at night at the bottom of the valley. They were overcome with fatigue and thirst, having walked for fifteen hours, nearly without stopping. The soles of their feet were cut and torn by the asperities of a rocky soil and the hard and dry stalks, for they had been obliged to pull off their boots, the soles having become too slippery.

They passed the night at the foot of the Saddle.

On the 7th of February they departed from Caracas, en route for the banks of the Orinoco. Nothing worthy of note occurred for several days.

Not far from the village of Turmero, they discovered at a league distant, an object, which appeared at the horizon like a round hillock, or tumulus, covered with vegetation. It was neither a hill, nor a group of trees close to each other, but one single tree, the famous Zamang del Guayre, known throughout the province for the enormous extent of its branches, which formed a hemispheric head five hundred and seventy-six feet in circumference. The zamang is a fine species of mimosa, and its tortuous branches are divided by bifurcation. Its delicate and tender foliage was agreeably relieved on the azure of the sky. They stopped a long time under this vegetable roof. The trunk of the Zamang del Guayre was only sixty feet high, and nine thick; its real beauty consisted in the form of its head. The branches extended like an immense umbrella, and bent toward the ground, from which they remained at a uniform distance of twelve or fifteen feet. The circumference of this head was so regular, that, having traced different diame

FRIGHTENED BY A JAGUAR.

103

ters, Humboldt found them one hundred and ninety-two, and one hundred and eighty-six feet. One side of the tree was entirely stripped of its foliage, owing to the drought; but on the other side there remained both leaves and flowers; parasites covered its branches, and cracked the bark. The inhabitants of the adjacent villages, particularly the Indians, held in great veneration the Zamang del Guayre, which the first conquerors found almost in the same state in which it now remains. Humboldt considered it at least as old as the Orotava dragon-tree.

On the 21st, in the evening, the travellers set out for Guacara and Nueva Valencia. They preferred travelling by night, on account of the excessive heat of the day. The road was bordered with large zamang-trees, the trunks of which rose sixty feet high. Their branches, nearly horizontal, met at more than one hundred and fifty feet distance. The night was gloomy: the Rincon del Diablo with its denticulated rocks appeared from time to time at a distance, illumined by the burning of the savannahs, or wrapped in ruddy smoke. At the spot where the bushes were thickest, their horses were frightened by the yell of an animal that seemed to follow them closely. It was a large jaguar, which had roamed for three years among these mountains. He had constantly escaped the pursuits of the boldest hunters, and had carried off horses and mules from the midst of inclosures; but, having no want of food, had not yet attacked men. The negro who conducted the travellers uttered wild cries, expecting by these means to frighten the jaguar, but his efforts were ineffectual.

On the morning of the 27th they visited the hot springs

of La Trinchera. Next to the springs of Urijin›, in Ja pan, the waters of La Trinchera are the hottest in the world. Humboldt and Bonpland breakfasted near them, and found that eggs plunged into the water boiled in less than four minutes. The heat became stifling as they approached the coast. A reddish vapour filled the horizon. It was near sunset, and the breeze was not yet stirring. The river of hot water, along the banks of which they passed, became deeper. A crocodile, more than nine feet long, lay dead on the strand. Humboldt wished to examine its teeth, and the inside of its mouth; but having been exposed to the sun for several weeks, it exhaled a smell so fetid that he was obliged to relinquish his design and remount his horse.

Between Porto Cabello and the valleys of Aragua they saw a remarkable tree. They had heard, several weeks before, of a tree, the sap of which was a nourishing milk. It was called 'the cow-tree'; and they were assured that the negroes, who drank plentifully of this vegetable milk, considered it a wholesome aliment. All the milky juices of plants being acrid, bitter, and more or less poisonous, this account appeared to them very extraordinary; but they found by experience during their stay in the neighbourhood, that the virtues of this tree had not been exaggerated. It rose like the broad-leaved starapple. Its oblong and pointed leaves, rough and alternate, were marked by lateral ribs, prominent at the lower surface and parallel. Some of them were ten inches long. They did not see the flower: the fruit was somewhat fleshy, and contained one and sometimes two nuts. When incisions were made in the trunk it yielded an abundance of glutinous milk, tolerably thick, devoid