102 THE ZAMANG DEL GUAYEE. 



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 asperi- 

 ties 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 sk}^ 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 ex- 

 tended 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- 



