82 MOUNTAINS — SEARCH FOR A GOLD MINE. 



CHAP. VII. This singular plain appeared to be the bed of an 

 riaiiTor ancient lake. The surrounding mountains are all preci- 

 Cumanacoa. pitous, and the soil contains pebbles and bivalve shells. 

 One of the gaps in the range, they were informed, was 

 inhabited by jaguar:;;, wliich passed the day in caves, 

 and roamed about the plantations at night. The pre- 

 ceding year, one of them had devoured a horse belonging 

 to a farm in tlie neighbourhood. The groans of the 

 ilying animal awoke the slaves, who went out armed 

 with lances and large knives, with which they despatched 

 the tiger after a vigorous resistance. 

 Fire caverns. From two caverns in this ravine there at times issue 

 flames, which illumine the adjacent mountains, and are 

 seen to a great distance at night. The phenomenon was 

 accompanied by a long-continued subterraneous noise 

 at the time of the last earthquake. A first attempt to 

 penetrate into this pass was rendered unsuccessful by 

 the strength of the vegetation and the intertwining of 

 lianas and thorny plants ; but the inhabitants becoming 

 interested in the researches of the travellers, and being 

 Search for desirous to know what the German miner thought of 

 ^° ' the gold ore which they imagined to exist in it, cleared 



a path through the woods. On entering the ravine they 

 found traces of jaguars ; and the Indians returned for 

 some small dogs, upon which they knew these animals 

 would spring in preference to attacking a man. The 

 rocks that bound it are perpendicular, and Avliat geolo- 

 gists term Alpine limestone. The excursion was ren- 

 dered hazardous by the nature of the ground ; but they 

 at length reached the pretended gold mine, which was 

 merely an excavation in a bed of black marl containing 

 ii'on pyrites, — a sub.--tance which the guides insisted was 

 no other than the precious metal. 

 Cavern?. They continued to penetrate into the crevice, and 



after undergoing great fatigue, reached a wall of rock, 

 which, rising perpendicularly to the height of 5116 

 feet, presented two inaccessible caverns inhal)ited by 

 nocturnal I)irds. Halting at the foot of one of the caves 

 from which ilames had been seen to issue, they listened 



