June 27, 1878] 



NATURE' 



231 



recorded ascent of the Silla was made by Humboldt at the 

 beginning of the present century, since when it has been 

 climbed by several enterprising Venezuelans and by some 

 foreign visitors. Mr. Spence effected the ascent in April, 

 1 872, in company with the German naturalist, Goering, 

 who was at that time collecting in Venezuela, and several 

 private friends. The Silla having been successfully 

 stormed, the summit of Naiguatd, which rises about 800 

 feet higher, was the next object. From the Silla, Mr. 

 Spence tells us, this high peak " rose boldly to view, and 

 the walled-in appearance of its flanks provoked not only 

 curiosity, but an enthusiastic desire to overcome its tra- 

 ditional difficulty of ascent." Now Naiguatd was reputed 

 to be inaccessible ; there was a firm belief in Caracas that 

 its summit " would never be trodden by human foot." 

 There was even an old tradition which " proclaimed its 

 impregnability," and all those who had attempted to 

 scale the height had been compelled to abandon the 

 undertaking without success. 



Nothing daunted by the objections of the good people 

 of Caracas, Mr. Spence and his friends set out on their 

 exf)edition on April 21, 1872, and arrived, after some httle 

 difficulty, at the desired summit about midday next day. 

 The Grand Precipice (see our illustration, Fig. i) would 

 not perhaps appear very formidable to an Alpine-clubbist, 

 but under the tropics people are not so active or so ven- 

 turesome as in these cold climes, and the retreat was 

 rendered rather severe from the want of water, and the 

 fog which rose up in the evening and obscured the way, 

 as shown in Mr. Spence's drawing (Fig. 2). How- 

 ever, the deed was done, and amongst a small collec- 

 tion of Alpine plants brought from the summit, which 

 has been since described by Dr. Ernst in the Journal of 

 Botany,^ was a new species of bamboo, named, after its 

 discoverer, Chusqiiea spencei, in commemoration of the 

 occasion. 



Besides the account of his various expeditions and of 

 his life at Caracas, many miscellaneous subjects regarding 



Fig. I.— The Grand Precipice of Naiguata. 



the "land of Bolivar" are treated of in Mr. Spence's 

 volumes, and the appendix contains other details, amongst 

 which is a synopsis of the orchids hitherto met with within 

 the confines of the republic from the pen of Dr. Ernst. On 

 the whole we may pronounce that Mr. Spence has done 

 well in bringing the merits of a little-known part of the 

 world's surface before the European public. Could 

 Venezuela be persuaded to keep free from intestine dissen- 

 sions, and to pay her debts a little more regularly, she 

 might still make a figure among the American republics. 



Along with Mr. Spence's volume two memoirs of Dr. 

 Ernst, whose name we have already mentioned, lie before 

 us. Dr. Adolf Ernst is, as his name betrays, a German 

 who has deserted the Fatherland for Caracas, and is 

 there labouring to grow science upon a somewhat un- 

 congenial soil. In botany, zoology, and ethnology alike 

 he has worked hard, and is the founder of the " Sociedad 

 de Ciencias Fisicas y Naturales de Cardcas," and, we 



Flc. 2. — The Way lost on Naiguata. 



believe we may add, the writer of the greater part of the 

 memoirs of that learned association. His first "Estudios" 

 contains general essays on the flora and fauna, and special 

 catalogues of the ferns, orchids, birds, and land-molluscs of 

 the republic. The second " Estudios" are devoted to a 

 subject of primary importance in Venezuela, that is, to 

 the maladies and enemies (animal and vegetable) of the 

 coffee-plant — one of the staple-products of that part of 

 America. This appears to have been written in answer 

 to an appeal, from the scientific society above-mentioned, 

 for the best essay on this absorbing question, and received 

 the prize to which it was, no doubt, entitled, as having 

 been written by probably the only individual in Venezuela 

 who had more than empirical knowledge of the subject. 

 Finally we may remark that there is at least one 



' " Notes on a Small Collection of Alpine Plants from the Summit of 

 NaiguSta, in the Mountains of Caracas," By A. Ernst, Ph.D., &c. {jfour. 

 Bot., September, 1872.) 



