HOT-SPRINGS—CROCODILES. 293 
the hot-springs in the neighbourhood. ‘These are 
impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen, and issue 
from a quartzose sandstone, lying on a compact lime- 
stone resembling that of Jura. The temperature of 
the water was 109-8°.. Their host had lent them 
one of his finest saddle-horses, warning them at the 
same time not to ford the little river of Narigual, 
which is infested with crocodiles. They passed over 
by a kind of bridge formed of the trunks of trees, 
and made their animals swim, holding them by the 
bridles. Humboldt’s suddenly disappeared, and the 
guides conjectured that it had been seized by the 
caymans. 
_The crocodiles of the Rio Neveri are numerous, 
but less ferocious than those of the Orinoco. The 
people of New Barcelona convey wood to market, 
by floating the logs on the river, while the proprie- 
tors swim here and there to set them loose when 
they are stopped by the banks. This could not be 
done in most of the South American rivers infested 
by those animals. There is no Indian suburb as 
at Cumana, and the few natives seen in the town, 
are from the neighbouring missions, or inhabitants 
of huts scattered in the plain. They are of a mixed 
race, indolent, and addicted to drinking. 
The packet-boats from Corunna to Havannah 
and Mexico had been due three months, so that 
they were supposed to have been taken by the Eng- 
lish cruisers ; when our travellers, anxious to reach 
Cumana, in order to avail themselves of the first op- 
portunity for Vera Cruz, hired an open vessel. It 
was laden with cacao, and carried on a contraband 
trade with the island of Trinidad ; for which reason 
the proprietor thought he had nothing to fear from 
