26 



CHAPTER III. 



VOLCANOES. MY TENT. — SACATE GRASSES. AN EARTH- 

 QUAKE. TREES. CURIOUS VOLCANOES. 



I BELIEVE it is Lady Mary Wortley Mon- 

 tague who remarks, that the most picturesque 

 parts of any country are those where the 

 plains terminate and the mountains commence 

 to rise. 



However I may have misquoted, and I 

 have no means for correction, there is great 

 truth in the saying ; and no country affords 

 a better example of it than South America 

 in general, but particularly Central America. 

 The approach to the Andes, whether you 

 proceed over the Pampas, or from the Pacific, 

 is generally devoid of trees, and it is only at 

 the foot of the first ranges that anything to 

 be called a wood is to be met with ; but in 

 Central America from the shore of the Pacific 

 to that of the Atlantic one immense dense 

 forest covers the whole land, except the few 

 spots that have been cleared near the towns, 

 some savannahs of small extent, and the 



