LIFE AND NATURE. 



CHAPTER I. 



FROM LA GUAIKA TO CARACAS, 



First View of tlie Tropics. — Silla — La Guaira. — Fortifications. — Custom- 

 house " Eeasonableness." — Ascent of the Cordillera. — Picturesque 

 Scenery. — Arrival at Caracas. 



It was on the afternoon of July 27th, after a voyage 

 of twenty-five days from New York, that we caught our 

 first glimpse of the tropics. Far to the southward could 

 be seen what appeared to be a mass of clouds piled one 

 upon another, which, to the unpractised eye, differed not 

 from those that encircled the entire heavens. That dark 

 pile, whose outline was so distinctly marked far up from the 

 hoi'izon, was a branch of the Andes, that mighty range of 

 mountains which traverses our sphere almost from pole to 

 pole, and, although over sixty miles away, the irregular 

 contour of its lofty summit could be distinctly traced 

 upon the sky. We were not permitted to watch long the 

 scene before us. Clouds soon gathered in around, and the 

 darkness of approaching night veiled the land from our 

 sight. 



By three o'clock, next morning, we were within five 

 miles of La Guaira, where we were obliged to wait for 

 1 



