144 VALLEY OF THE TUY. 



oxen met them at every step, was cut out of a tal- 

 cose gneiss, in a state of decomposition. Descend- 

 ing from that point, they came upon a ravine, in 

 which a fine spring formed several cascades. Here 

 they found an abundant and diversified vegetation, 

 consisting of arborescent ferns, more than twenty- 

 seven feet high, heliconias, plumerias, broAvneae, 

 gigantic fiss, palms, and other plants. The brownea, 

 which bears four or five hundred purple flowers in a 

 single thyrsus, reaches the height of fifty or sixty 

 feet. 



At the base of the wooded mountain of Higuerota 

 they entered the small village of San Pedro, situated 

 in a basin where several valleys meet. Plantains, 

 potatoes, and coifee were sedulously cultivated. 

 The rock was mica-slate, filled with garnets, and 

 containing beds of serpentine of a fine green, varied 

 with spots of a lighter tint. 



Ascending from the low ground, they passed by 

 the farms of Las Lagunetas and Garavatos, near the 

 latter of which there is a mica-slate rock of a singular 

 form,— that of a ridge, or wall, crowned by a tower. 

 The country is mountainous, and almost entirely 

 uninhabited ; but beyond this they entered a fertile 

 district, covered with hamlets and small towns. 

 This beautiful region is the valley of the Tuy, where 

 they spent two days at the plantation of Don Jose 

 de Manterola, on the bank of the river, the water of 

 which Avas as clear as crystal. Here they observed 

 three species of sugar-cane, the old creole, the Ota- 

 heitan, and the Batavian, which are easily distin- 

 guished, and of -uiiich the most valuable is the Ota- 

 heitan, as it not only yields a third more of juice 

 than the Creole cane, but furnishes a much greater 

 quantity of fuel. 



As this valley, like most other parts of the Span- 

 ish colonies, has its gold mine, Humboldt was de- 

 sired to visit it. In the ravine leading to it an enor- 

 mous tree fixed the attention of the travellers. It 



