EARLY TRAVELLIXG. 



they had lost their way, perplexed him, and we found 

 it difficult to inspire him with confidence. At length 

 he consented to guide us to the farm of the Cayman, 

 but without slackening the gentle trot of his horse." 



In order to escape the burning heat of the day, 

 Humboldt determined to start next morning at 

 two A.M., in the hope of reaching Calabozo, a small 

 town situate in the midst of the Llanos. " The 

 aspect of the country was the same. There was no 

 moonlight ; but the great masses of nebulae that 

 decorated the southern sky, enlightened, as they 

 set, a part of the terrestrial horizon. The solemn 

 spectacle of the starry vault, which displayed itself 

 in its immense extent ; the cool breeze that blew 

 over the plain during the night ; the waving mo- 

 tion of the grass wherever it had attained any 

 height everything recalled to mind the surface of 

 the ocean. The illusion, above all, augments when 

 the disk of the sun shows itself at the horizon, re- 

 peating its image by the effects of refraction, and 

 soon, losing its flattened form, ascends rapidly and 

 straight towards the zenith. 



In proportion as the sun rose higher, and the 

 earth and the strata of superincumbent air took 

 different temperatures, the phenomenon of mirage 

 displayed itself, with its numerous modifications. 

 This phenomenon, the most anciently observed, 

 lias received in Sanscrit the expressive name of 



