136 HATO DE ALT A GBACIA. 



same formation as that of Guire, on the coast of Paria, 

 which contains sulphur? or do the masses of this latter 

 substance, found in the valley of Buen Pastor and on the 

 banks of the Orinoco, belong, with the argillaceous gyp- 

 sum of the Llanos, to a secondary formation much more 

 recent. 



These questions are very interesting in the study of the 

 relative antiquity of rocks, which is the principal basis of 

 geology. I know not of any salt-deposits in the Llanos. 

 Horned cattle prosper here without those famous bareros, 

 or muriatiferous lands, which abound in the Pampas of 

 Buenos Ayres.* 



After having wandered for a long time, and without any 

 traces of a road, in the desert savannahs of the Mesa de 

 Pavones, we were agreeably surprised when we came to a 

 solitary farm, the Hato de Alfa Gracia, surrounded with 

 gardens and basins of limpid water. Hedges of bead-trees 

 encircled groups of icacoes laden with fruit. Farther on 

 we passed the night near the small village of San Geronymo 

 del Guayaval, founded by Capuchin missionaries. It is 

 situated near the banks of the Rio Guarico, which falls 

 into the Apure. I visited the missionary, who had no other 

 habitation than his church, not haying yet built a house. 

 He was a young man, and he received us in the most 

 obliging manner, giving us all the information we desired. 

 His village, or to use the word established among the 

 monks, his Mission, was not easy to govern. The founder, 

 who had not hesitated to establish for his own profit a 

 pulperia, in other words, to sell bananas and guarapo in the 

 church itself, had shown himself to be not very nice in the 

 choice of the new colonists. Many marauders of the Llanoa 

 had settled at Ghiayaval, because the inhabitants of a Mis- 

 sion are exempt from the authority of secular law. Here, 

 aa in Australia, it cannot be expected that good colonists 

 \\ ill be formed before the second or third generation. 



"We passsd the Guarico, and encamped in the savannahs 

 south of G-uayaval. Enormous bats, no doubt of the tribe 

 of Phyllostomas, hovered as usual over our hammocks 

 during a great part of the night. Every moment they 

 eemed to be about to fasten on our faces. Early in the 

 * Known in North America under the name of ' salt-licks.' 



