of an Orchid Hunter 



113 



plain where the wild Indian must have ranged and 



camped at will in the time when the Spanish yoke 

 was unknown. ' The vegetation consists of a tall, 

 rank herbage, with occasional scrub, intermixed with 

 thousands of the beautiful Sobralia leucoxantha, with 

 rose and white flowers of the colour and substance 

 of a Cattlcya Mendelii, but so difficult to transport 

 that very few of the plants are known in England. 

 The inhabitants of this magnificent plain are mostly 

 cattle-keepers, who are possessed of the best class 

 of horses to be found in this part of the country ; 

 they are also celebrated for their splendid horseman- 

 ship. Every morning they may be seen careering 

 over the expanse of prairie with a lasso of about 

 thirty yards long, of raw cow-hide, tied to the pommel 

 of the saddle, and wearing a pair of very wide leg- 

 gings, which are strapped around them at the waist 

 and float in the wind on either side something like 

 a lady's dress. These half-breeches, half-leggings, are 

 called in the Spanish zamarros. The saddle is as 

 peculiar a production as the rest of the arrangement, 

 being raised up very high at the front and back, so 

 that the horseman appears to sit in a chair. A square 

 piece of cloth, with a hole cut in the middle for the 

 neck, is thrown over the shoulders ; this, and a wide- 

 brimmed straw hat, complete the curious costume of 

 a Colombian cattle-ranger. One side of La xMesa 

 I 



