lUE EARTH. 107 



tiniial motion to keep them off; but at night our torments were 

 excessive. Our gloves, indeed, were some defence to our hands ; 

 but our faces were entirely exposed ; nor were our clothes a sufll- 

 cient defence for the rest of our bodies ; for tbeir stings pene- 

 trating through the cloth, caused a very painful and fiery itching. 

 One night, in coming to an anchor near a large and handsome 

 bouse that was uninhabited, we had no sooner seated ourselve 

 in it, than we were attacked on all sides by swarms of mosche- 

 toes, so that it was impossible to have one moment's quiet. 

 Those who had covered themselves with clothes made for this 

 purpose, found not the smallest defence ; wherefore, hoping to 

 find some relief in the open fields, we ventured out, though in 

 danger of suffering in a more terrible manner from the serpents. 

 But both places were equally obnoxious. On quitting this in- 

 hospitable retreat, we the next night took up our quarters in a 

 house that was inhabited ; the host of which being informed of 

 the terrible manner we had past the night before, grasely told 

 us, that the house we so greatly complained of, had been fore- 

 saken on account of its being the purgatory of a soul. But 

 we had more reason to believe that it was quitted on account of 

 its being the purgatory of the body. After having journeyed 

 for upwards of three days, through boggj- roads, in which 

 the mules at eyery step sunk up to their bellies, we began at 

 length to perceive an alteration in the climate ; and having been 

 long accustomed to heat, we now began to feel it grow sensibly 

 colder. 



" It is remarkable, that at Tariguagua we often see instances 

 ■jf the effects of two opposite temperatures, in two persons hap. 

 pening to meet : one of them leaving the plains below, and the 

 other descending from the mountains. The former thinks the 

 cold so severe, that he wraps himself up in all the garments h 

 can procure ; while the latter finds the heat so great, that he i? 

 scarce able to bear any clothes whatsoever. The one thinks the 

 water so cold, that he avoids being sprinkled by it ; the other is 

 so delighted with its warmth, that he uses it as a bath. Nor is 

 he case very different in the same person, who experiences the 

 dame diversity of sensation upon his journey up, and upon his 

 retm'n. This difference only proceeds from the change naturally 

 telt at leaving a climate to which one has been accustomed, and 

 coming into anotbe.- of an opposite temperature. 



