CHAPTER III 



EXCUESIOIS^S ABOUT CARACAS. 



Trip to the Cave of Encantado. — KaOroad. — Thunder-storm. — Petard. — A 

 Hopeful Student. — Experience at a Posada. — The Cave. — Pineapple- 

 Plant.— Calabash-Tree.— Yuca-Sl;rub.— Death of Mr. "Wilson.— La 

 Valle. — Cerro do Avila. 



During our stay at Caracas "u^e made many excursions 

 to places of interest in tlie valley ; the first of whicli was 

 to the Cave of Encantado, four leagues east of the city. 

 On the morning of our fourth day in the capital, we set 

 out for this place. The sun had not risen, yet the streets 

 of the city were already bustling with life — for the 

 Spaniard is an early riser, the morning heing, more from 

 necessity than choice, the business part of the day. Scores 

 of water-carriers hastened along with their immense earth- 

 en pots, balanced upon their heads — burdens are seldom 

 carried in the hand ; while donkeys, so completely buried 

 beneath their loads of maize, that they seemed like piles 

 of herbage endowed with locomotion, pushed stubbornly 

 through the street. 



Crossing the Arauca, the stream which forms the 

 eastern boundary of the city, we passed at our left a line 

 of railway. The track, which was overgrown with grass 

 and weeds, terminated a short distance farther on. It had 

 been purposed to carry it to Petare, but, like alt Venezue- 

 lian enterprises, the affair had come to an untimely end. 



