ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 125 



already on. our way towards the last cone. The 

 heavens were bright with stars, and the moon shone 

 with a gentle radiance ; but this calm was soon to 

 be disturbed. The storm raged violently round 

 the summit ; we were obliged to cling fast to the 

 edge of the crater. The wind rushed through the 

 rifts with a noise like thunder, while a veil of 

 cloud separated us from the world below." 



After a voyage of nineteen days, the ship entered 

 the harbor of Cumana, on the north coast of South 

 America. Here they enjoyed the new and strange 

 scenes ; the houses built of satin-wood ; the cop- 

 per-colored Indians outside the town, living in 

 bamboo huts, covered with the leaves of the cocoa- 

 nut palm ; these great trees from fifty to sixty feet 

 high, with large red bunches of flowers. "Even 

 the crabs," said Humboldt, " are sky-blue and gold ! " 



By November they had dried more than sixteen 

 hundred plants, and described about six hundred 

 new varieties. He had taken observations of the 

 solar eclipse of October 28, and so severely burnt 

 his face that he was obliged to remain in bed for 

 two days. 



Going to Caracas, they spent two months and a 

 half climbing mountains, visiting hot springs, and 

 forming an intimate acquaintance with tigers, croc- 

 odiles, monkeys, and boa constrictors. Here they 

 discovered the singular cow-tree, with dry and tough 

 leaves, but which gives out a sweet nourishing milk 

 when an incision is made in its stem. " At sunrise 

 this vegetable spring is the richest : then the 



