76 VEGETATION' OF NEW-AXDALUSIA. 



Leaving the Impossible on the 5th before sunrise, 

 they descended by a very narrow path bordering on 

 precipices. The summit of the ridge was of quartzy 

 sandstone, beneath which' the alpine Umestone re- 

 appeared. The strata being generally inclined to 

 the south, numerous springs gush out on that side, 

 and in the rainy season form torrents which fall in 

 cascades, shaded by the hura, the cuspa, and the 

 trumpet-tree. The cuspa, which is common in the 

 neighbourhood of Cumana, had long been used for 

 carpenter-work, but has of late attracted notice as a 

 powerful tonic or febrifuge. 



Emerging from the ravine which opens at the 

 foot of the mountain, they entered a dense forest, 

 traversed by numerous small rivers, which were 

 easily forded. They observed that the leaves of the 

 cecropiawere more or less silver)- according as the 

 soil was dry or marshy, and specimens occurred in 

 which they were entirely green on both sides. The 

 roots of these shrubs were concealed beneath tufts 

 of dorstenia, a plant which thrives only in shady and 

 moist pldces. In the midst of the forest they found 

 papaws and orange-trees bearing excellent fruit, 

 which they conjectured to be the remains of some 

 Indian plantations, as in these countries they are 

 no more indigenous than the banana, the maize, the 

 manioc, and the many other useful plants whose 

 native coimtry is unkno^vn, although they have ac- 

 companied man in his migratioiis from the most re- 

 mote periods. 



" \Mien a traveller newly arrived from Europe," 

 says Humboldt, " penetrates for the first time into 

 the forests of South America, nature presents herself 

 to his view in an unexpected aspect : the objects by 

 which he is surrounded bear but a faint resemblance 

 to the pictures draivn by celebrated writers on the 

 banks of the Mississippi, in Rorida, and in other 

 temperate regions of the New ^yorld. He per- 

 ceives at every step that he is not upon the verge. 



