108 OKIGIN OF TUE LLANO8. 



Indian of Javita to us gravely, " where there are nc marshes j 

 because the water ceases to collect when you imprudently 

 kill the serpents that attract it." 



We suffered greatly from the heat in crossing the Mesa 

 de Calabozo. The temperature of the air augmented sensibly 

 every time that the wind began to blow. The air was 

 loaded with dust ; and during these gusts the thermometer 

 rose to 40 or 41. We went slowly forward, for it would 

 have been dangerous to leave the mules that carried our 

 instruments. Our guides advised us to fill our hats with 

 the leaves of the rhopala, to diminish the action of the solar 

 rays on the hair and the crown ol the head. We found 

 relief from this expedient, which was particularly agreeable, 

 when we could procure the thick leaves of the pothos or 

 some other similar plant. 



It is impossible to cross these burning plains, without 

 inquiring whether they have always been in the same state ; 

 or whether they have been stripped of their vegetation by 

 some revolution of nature. The stratum of mould now 

 found on them is in fact very thin. The natives believe 

 that the palmares and the cJiaparales (the little groves of 

 palm-trees and rhopala) were more frequent and more exten- 

 sive before the arrival of the Spaniards. Since the Llanos 

 have been inhabited and peopled with cattle become wild, 

 the savannah is often set on fire, in order to ameliorate 

 the pasturage. Groups of scattered trees are accidently 

 destroyed with the grasses. The plains were no doubt less 

 bare in the fifteenth century, than they now are ; yet the 

 first Conquistadores, who came from Coro, described them 

 then as savannahs, where nothing could be perceived but 

 the sky and the turf, generally destitute of trees, and dif- 

 ficult to traverse on account of the reverberation of heat 

 from the soiL Why does not the great forest of the Orinoco 

 extend to the north, on the left bank of that river ? Why 

 does it not fill that vast space that reaches as far as the 

 Cordillera of the coast, and which is fertilized by numerous 

 rivers ? These questions are connected with all that relates 

 to the history of our planet. If, indulging in geologica/ 

 reveries, we suppose that the steppes of America, and the 

 desert of Sahara, have been stripped of their vegetation bj 

 an irruption of the ocean, or that they formed originally tm 



