26 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



from the Peruvian shore to Otaheiti may be made in twenty- 

 five days, and yet, at the period of my travels in Peru and 

 Chili, the Tahitian sugar-cane was not yet known in those 

 provinces. The natives of Easter Island, who suffer great 

 distress from want of fresh water, drink the juice of the sugar- 

 cane, and, what is very remarkable in a physiological point 

 of view, likewise sea-water. On the Society, Friendly, and 

 Sandwich Islands, the light green and thick stemmed sugar- 

 cane is everywhere cultivated. 



In addition to the Cana de Otaheiti and the Cana criolla, a 

 reddish African sugar-cane is cultivated in the West Indies, 

 which is known as the Cana de Guinea. It is less succulent 

 than the common Asiatic variety, but its juice is esteemed 

 especially well adapted for the preparation of ruin. 



In the province of Caracas the light green of the Tahitian 

 sugar-cane forms a beautiful contrast with the dark shade 

 of the cacao plantations. Few tropical trees have so thick a 

 foliage as the Theobroma Cacao. This noble tree thrives best in 

 hot and humid valleys. Extreme fertility of soil and insalubrity 

 of atmosphere are as inseparably connected in South America 

 as in Southern Asia. Nay, it has even been observed that 

 in proportion as the cultivation of the land increases, and the 

 woods are removed, the soil and the climate become less 

 humid, and the cacao plantations thrive less luxuriantly. 

 But while they diminish in numbers in the province of Caracas, 

 they spread rapidly in the eastern provinces of New Barcelona 

 and Cumana, more especially in the humid woody region 

 lying between Cariaco and the Golfo Triste. 



(2) p. 1 " The natives term this phenomenon ' banks.'" 



The Llanos of Caracas are covered with a widely-extended 

 formation of ancient conglomerate. On passing from the 

 valleys of Aragua over the most southern range of the coast 

 chain of Guigue and Villa de Cura, descending towards Para- 

 para, the traveller meets successively with strata of gneiss and 

 micaceous schist, a probably Silurian transition rock of argil- 

 laceous schist and black limestone ; serpentine and greenstone 

 in detached spheroidal masses; and lastly, on the margin of 

 the great plain, small elevations of augitic amygdaloid and 

 porphyritic schist. These hills between Parapara and Ortiz 

 appear to me to be produced by volcanic eruptions on the 



