CANE-BRAKES. 275 



south. The height of each, when fully grown, is 

 from twelve to thirty feet, and from one to two in 

 diameter. Growing singly, they present the ap- 

 pearance of elegant arborescent canes, but more 

 frequently the plants stand so close together, and 

 become in the course of a few months so thickly 

 tangled, as to present an almost impenetrable 

 thicket, at which period the ground thus covered is 

 called a cane-brake. These cane-brakes are seen 

 frequently beneath the gigantic trees that form the 

 western forests, interspersed with vines of different 

 species, and plants of every description. It is ex- 

 tremely difficult for any one to make his way after 

 a heavy shower of rain, or a fall of- sleet, through 

 the dripping branches, for the traveller shakes down 

 such quantities of water, as soon reduce him to a 

 state of the greatest discomfort. Hunters often cut 

 a narrow path through the thickets, but more gene- 

 rally they push themselves backwards, and wedge a 

 way between the stems. 



Throughout the mighty range of the vast Llanos, 

 which extend from the mountains on the coast of 

 the Caraccas to the forests of Guayana, from the 

 snow-clad mountains of Merida to the delta of the 

 Orinoco, spreading south-westward like an arm of 

 the sea, from the rivers Nichada and Meta to the 

 unpeopled sources of the Guaviare, comprising a 

 space of at least sixteen thousand square miles, one 

 characteristic feature everywhere prevails. This 

 feature is that of a marine bed left uncovered by the 

 receding of the waters. 



There are many appearances leading to the con- 

 jecture that the earth on which we tread is the basin 



T 2 



