VEGETATION OF THE BASIN. 80 



of Mariara. Wherever the waters evaporate it. the air, they 

 form sediments and incrustations of carbonate of lime; pos- 

 sibly they traverse strata of primitive limestone, so common 

 in the mica-slate and gneiss of the coasts of Caoucas. We 

 were surprised at the luxuriant vegetation that surrounds 

 the basin ; mimosas with slender pinnate leaves, clusias, and 

 fig-trees, have pushed their roots into the bottom of a pool, 

 the temperature of which is 85 ; and the branches of these 

 trees extended over the surface of the water, at two or three 

 inches distance. The foliage of the mimosas, though con- 

 stantly enveloped in the hot vapours, displayed the most 

 beautiful verdure. An arum, with a woody stem, and with 

 large sagittate leaves, rose in the very middle of a pool the 

 temperature of which was 70. Plants of the same species 

 vegetate in other parts of those mountains at the brink of 

 torrents, the temperature of which is not 18. What is still 

 more singular, forty feet distant from the point whence the 

 springs gush out at a temperature of 90, other springs are 

 found perfectly cold. They all follow for some time a parallel 

 direction; and the natives showed us that, by digging a hole 

 between the two rivulets, they could procure a bath of any 

 given temperature they pleased. It seems remarkable, that 

 in the hottest as well as the coldest climates, people display 

 the same predilection for heat. On the introduction of 

 Christianity into Iceland, the inhabitants would be baptized 

 only in the hot springs of Hecla: and in the torrid zone, 

 in the plains, as well as on the Cordilleras, the natives flock 

 from all parts to the thermal waters. The sick, who come 

 to La Trmchera to use vapour-baths, form a sort of frame- 

 work over the spring with branches of trees and very slender 

 reeds. They stretch themselves naked on this frame, which 

 appeared to me to possess little strength, and to be danger- 

 ous of access. The liio de Aguas Calientes runs towards the 

 north-east, and becomes, near the coast, a considerable river, 

 swarming with great crocodiles, and contributing, by its 

 inundations, to the insalubrity of the shore. 



We descended towards Porto Cabello, having constantly 

 the river of hot water on our right. The road is extremely 

 picturesque, and the waters roll down on the shelves of 

 rock. We mipht have fancied we were gazing on the cas- 

 cades of the iieuss, that flows down Mount St. Gotbard; 



