150 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



Guaranis the tree of life, arbol de la vida. It grows in the mount- 

 ains of Ronaima, east of the sources of the Orinoco, as high as 

 4000 (4263 Eng.) feet. On the unvisited banks of the Rio Ata- 

 bapo, in the interior of Guiana, we discovered a new species of Mau- 

 ritia with prickly stems, our Mauritia aculeata (Humboldt, Bonpland, 

 and Kunth, Nova Genera et Species Plantarum, t. i. p. 310). 



( 33 ) p. 35. "An American Stylites" 



The founder of the sect of the Stylites, the fanatical pillar-saint 

 Simeon Sisanites, the son of a Syrian herdsman, is said to have 

 passed thirty-seven years in religious contemplation on the summits 

 ' of five successive pillars, each higher than the preceding. The last 

 pillar was 40 ells high. He died in the year 461. Po rseven hun- 

 dred years there continued to be men who imitated this manner of 

 life, and were called " sancti coluninares" (pillar saints). Even in 

 Germany, in the diocese of Treves, it was proposed to erect such 

 aerial cloisters, but the bishops opposed the undertaking (Mosheim, 

 Institut, Hist. Eccles. 1755, p. 215). 



( 33 ) p. 36. "Towns on the banks of the streams which flow 



through the Steppe" 



Families who live not by agriculture, but by the care of cattle, 

 have congregated in the middle of the Steppe in small towns, which, 

 in the cultivated parts of Europe, would hardly be, regarded as vil- 

 lages. Such are Calabozo, in 8 56' 14 ;/ N. lat. and 67 42' long, 

 according to my observations, Villa del Pao, lat. 8 38' 1", long. 

 66 57', S. Sebastian, and others. 



(**) p. 36." Conical-shaped clouds:' 



The singular phenomenon of these " sand spouts" something 

 analogous to which may occasionally be seen on a small scale in 

 Europe where four roads meet is particularly characteristic of the 

 Peruvian Sand Desert between Amotape and Coquimbo. Such a 

 dense cloud of sand or dust may prove dangerous to the traveller 

 who does not- cautiously avoid its approach. It is also worthy of 

 notice that these partial conflicting currents of air only arise when 

 the air generally is perfectly calm. The aerial ocean resembles the 

 sea in this respect, for in the latter also the small currents which 



