04 OVEK THE MOUNTAINS TO THE LLANOS. 



down, threaten to liurl every opposing obstacle over the 

 frightful cliff. Trains of animals crossino- the Cordilleras 

 have a bell attached to the neck of the leader, or are pre- 

 ceded by a drover with a conch-shell that is blown to 

 give notice of the approaching line, but which does not al- 

 ways prevent a collision that sometimes results most disas- 

 trously. We frequently encountered troops of pack-mules 

 and donkeys going to Valencia ; but, being always on the 

 qui vive, we were spared any of these unpleasant episodes. 

 We at length descended into a heavily-timbered valley, 

 and, rising from this to the summit of the last range of 

 the Cordillera, we beheld for the first time the Llanos of 

 Venezuela. One can scarcely imagine the pleasure af- 

 forded us, as, after travelling amid the wildest of moun- 

 tain scenery, we looked down upon this great sea of ver- 

 dure which, joined with the sylvas of Brazil and the 

 pampas of Buenos Ayres, stretched far away thousands 

 of miles into the regions of southern frost. 



The Llanos of Venezuela are separated from the great 

 forest of the Amazons by the mountains of Guiana, or, as 

 sometimes termed, the sierras of Parima, and bounded 

 upon the north by the littoral range of the coast, bearing 

 different local names, as the mountains of Puerto Cabello, 

 Caracas, and Cumana. The plains thus have a width of 

 about four hundred miles, while in length they stretch 

 from the great delta of the Orinoco more than a thousand 

 miles westvv^ard to the Andes of Colombia. By far the 

 greater portion of this immense plain is covered with 

 luxuriant grass, but often broken by tracts of forest, and 

 belted by the heavily-wooded courses of the many rivers. 

 Draining these savannas is the Orinoco, the second river 

 in size of South America, which is swollen by the thou- 

 sand streams from the mountains of Guiana upon the south, 

 and from the Andes of Colombia, and the coast-chain of 

 Venezuela, upon the west and north. The swelling of 



