CAVE OF GUACHARO. 101 
along a small river which issues from the cave, they 
proceeded, during three quarters of an hour, some- 
times walking in the water, sometimes on a slippery 
and miry soil between the torrent and a wall of 
rocks, until they arrived at the foot of the lofty 
mountain of Guacharo. Here the torrent ran in a 
deep ravine, and they went on under a projecting 
cliff which prevented them from seeing the sky, 
until at the last turning they came suddenly 
upon the immense opening of the recess, which is 
eighty-five feet broad and seventy-seven feet high. 
The entrance is toward the south, and is form- 
ed in the vertical face of a rock, covered with 
trees of gigantic height, intermixed with numerous 
species of singular and beautiful plants, some of 
which hang in festoons over the vault. This luxu- 
riant vegetation is not confined to the exterior of 
the cave, but appears even in the vestibule, where 
the travellers were astonished to see heliconias nine- 
teen feet in height, palms, and arborescent arums. 
They had advanced about four hundred and sixty 
feet before it became necessary to light their torches, 
when they heard from afar the hoarse screams of 
the birds. 
The guacharo is the size of a domestic fowl, and has 
somewhat the appearance of a vulture, with a mouth 
like that of a goatsucker. It forms a distinct genus 
in the order Passeres, differing from that just named 
in having a stronger beak, furnished with two den- 
ticulations, though in its manners it bears an affinity 
to it as well as to the Alpine crow. Its plumage is 
dark bluish-gray, minutely streaked and spotted with 
deep-brown, the head, wings, and tail, being marked 
with white spots bordered with black. The extent 
