254 SAVAX^HS OF 



whi-'h I traced in another work shortly after my return to 

 Europe.* The savannahs of Atures, covered with slender 

 plants and grasses, are really meadows resembling those of 

 Europe. They are never inundated by the rivers, and seem 

 as if waiting to be ploughed by the hand of man. Notwith- 

 standing their extent, these savannahs do not exhibit the 

 monotony of our plains ; they surround groups of rocks and 

 blocks of granite piled on one another. On the very bor- 

 ders of these plains and this open country, glens are seen 

 scarcely lighted by the rays of the setting sun, and hollows 

 where the humid soil, loaded with arums, heliconias, and 

 lianas, manifests at every step the wild fecundity of nature. 

 Everywhere, just rising above the earth, appear those 

 shelves of granite completely bare, which we saw at Cari- 

 chana, and which I have already described. "Where springs 

 gush from the bosom of these rocks, verrucarias, psoras, and 

 lichens are fixed on the decomposed granite, and have there 

 accumulated mould. Little euphorbias, peperomias, and 

 other succulent plants, have taken the place of the crypto- 

 gamous tribes ; and evergreen shrubs, rhexias, and purple- 

 flowered melastomas, form verdant isles amid desert and 

 rocky plains. The distribution of these spots, the clusters 

 of small trees with coriaceous and shining leaves scattered 

 in the savannahs, the limpid rills that dig channels across 

 the rocks, and wind alternately through fertile places and 

 over bare shelves of granite, all call to mind the most lovely 

 and picturesque plantations and pleasure-grounds of Europe. 

 We seem to recognise the industry of man, and the traces 

 of cultivation, amid this wild scenery. 



The lofty mountains that bound the horizon on every 

 side, contribute also, by their forms and the nature of their 

 vegetation, to give an extraordinary character to the land- 

 scape. The average height of these mountains is not more 

 than seven or eight hundred feet above the surrounding 

 plains. Their summits are rounded, as for the most part in 

 granitic mountains, and covered with thick forests of the 

 laurel-tribe. Clusters of palm-trees,t the leaves of which, 

 curled like feathers, rise majestically at an angle of seventy 

 3, are dispersed amid trees with horizontal branches 



* Views of Nature, p. 153 (Bohn's edition). 

 f Elcucurito. 



